


Hold No Punches

by IanNeverWrites



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Reality, Angst, Bisexual Keith (Voltron), Bisexual Shiro (Voltron), Canon Rewrite, Canon-Typical Violence, Castle of Lions - Freeform, Depression, Developing Relationship, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Epilogue What Epilogue, Established Relationship, F/M, Falling In Love, Fanart, Female Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Hunk (Voltron) is a Good Friend, Hunk (Voltron) is so Pure, Keith (Voltron) is Bad at Feelings, Kissing, Lance (Voltron) is a Mess, Lots of plot, Love Triangles, M/M, Male Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Multi, Mutual Pining, Near Death Experiences, Not Epilogue Compliant, Other, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Past Relationship(s), Pining, Plot, Rating May Change, SHEITH - Freeform, Self-Esteem Issues, Serious Injuries, Shiro (Voltron) Has PTSD - Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Slow Burn, Team Voltron Family, blue lion - Freeform, but gets some anyway, going to cover every episode, haven't decided how much of season 8 im getting rid of yet, is it technically an AU if i rewrite the entire canon, just for a bit, just the show with another major character written in, negative self-talk, overprotective shiro, real talk, shiro isn't much better, starts before the show, strong independent princess who don't need no man, swearing is a thing, triangle of love
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-30
Updated: 2019-09-06
Packaged: 2020-02-10 09:54:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 17
Words: 56,752
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18658069
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IanNeverWrites/pseuds/IanNeverWrites
Summary: Daphne never wanted to be a princess, and she wasn't good at it. Good thing she has supportive parents and an older sibling to take the throne. She gets to go to the Galaxy Garrison, training to become a Special-Ops agent. There she meets Shiro and later Keith, becoming good friends with them so when Shiro goes missing in space she isn't going to sit back and do nothing. Armed only with her training, determination, a frankly ridiculous amount of knives, and the odd gift of premonitions, she's got to figure out a way to make things right. She has no idea whats coming for her.A retelling and rewriting of the entire Voltron canon with an additional main character. Come along for the ride and let's see how far I make it.





	1. Welcome to My Show!

Pre-Season 1 (PS1) Cover

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please be nice, this is my first ever story, I don't really write. Constructive criticism is appreciated, however, I will be sad if you just trash talk my work. I hope you like it!


	2. PS1e1 The Day the Garrison Lost it's Mind Part 1

The Garrison cadet uniform wasn’t pretty. The Garrison Special-ops uniform isn’t all that much better but at least it isn’t orange. With my hair being practically orange, let’s just say it wasn’t a good look for me. Not that I care about my appearance much, it’s never been much of a priority. You would think that being a princess and all, my appearance would be more important but I’ve never been good at all that princess stuff. I never wanted to be a princess or, god forbid, a queen, thank goodness I have an older sister ready and willing to take the throne when the time comes. That’s why I’m here, because here I’m not a princess, here no one gives a shit, and aside from a few high ranking Garrison officers, no one even knows.

It’s my first day of Special-ops training, as soon as I put on my new uniform I’ll be on my way to recognizing the dream I’ve had since I’ve been old enough to dream. I should be excited or maybe a little nervous but all I feel is dread, something is going to go wrong today. I’m worried about Keith, he’s been getting more and more explosive and out of control since the disappearance of the Kerberos mission almost five months ago. I’m worried about him and our different training paths mean we aren’t in the same area of the garrison anymore. I can’t keep an eye on him from the Special-ops compound. This dread feels particular, it feels outside of myself, its more than just a feeling, it’s a premonition, something involving Keith is going to go very wrong today.

I’ve always had these premonitions. I’ve learned to distinguish them from instincts or gut feelings and they are never wrong. But unfortunately they are not like seeing the future, I don’t know what exactly is going to happen and I never have any idea what I could do to prevent bad things from happening. Sometimes if I focus, reach out with my mind to the energy of the universe and all that woo-woo bullshit that I don’t really believe, I can get a bit more information but nothing more than feelings or general impressions of who might be involved.

I wish I could check on Keith before breakfast today but I know he wouldn’t appreciate it and I can’t be late to instruction on the first day. Speaking of, I need to get my butt in gear if I want to have time to shove some food in my face. I’ll see if I can sneak out to see him at lunch.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have a lot more than this written but I'm trying to pace myself. I want to at least try to be semi-consistent when it comes to uploading content. Absolutely no promises though!


	3. PS1e1 The Day the Garrison Lost it's Mind Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The rest of Daphne's first day as a garrison special-ops cadet.

I hadn’t even made it to breakfast when the announcement came over the intercom for all garrison personnel to gather for who knows what reason. I start moving towards the main garrison building, breakfast is just going to have to wait. Today is going to be even worse than I thought.

-

No. No no no no no. Pilot error my ass! I know Shiro, he was, no _IS_ the best pilot in the garrison. I refuse to believe that he’s dead or that he crashed the mission. He taught me everything I know about flying and much of what I know about fighting and self-control. The garrison is lying.

Oh my god, Keith! Oh no. What am I going to do? He’s even closer to Shiro than I am. He is not going to take this well at all.

Iverson is still talking up at the front of the room but I can’t hear a word he is saying, I feel like I’m going into shock. All I can do is look for Keith.

“… end our search for the Kerberos crew. Now cadets, instruction starts at 0800 sharp as usual. Don’t be late!” How can Iverson be so heartless? That’s in less than 10 minutes, less than 10 minutes to process everything they’ve just told us and get on with our lives. I can’t, I’m going to be sick. I have to find Keith, I have to get some answers, and I have to eat something before I pass out. Unfortunately I don’t get to do any of those things as I have to be in class in less than 10 minutes.

-

Special-ops is supposed to be a secret program. It’s really more of an open secret. Most people aren’t super aware of it and when you’re selected for the program you’re whisked off to a different building and training compound on the fringe of garrison grounds. We are still allowed around the normal areas of the garrison open to carets but it’s kind of discouraged.

Typically when you’re chosen for special-ops training is the first time you hear about the program. I was a little different, of course, because my before my mom met and married my dad and became royalty, she was in the garrison as a special-ops agent. A kick-butt, bad-ass, wonder woman and I wanted to be just like her. I’ve been working all my life to get here but lately I’ve been distracted. First I was drawn to Shiro and Matt and then later to Keith and I’ve been acting on those pulls but right now none of them are here so I can focus on my goal. So that’s exactly what I do, I throw myself into my training with everything I have. I need to learn as much as I can as fast as I can because I have a feeling I won’t be here all that long.

-

I may have thrown myself into training a little too hard. I won all my sparing matches but only just. What I lack in brute strength I make up for in the years of training provided by my parents at home and my work with Shiro here, but that training is only going to go so far once they actually begin to teach us fighting techniques. I only won this morning because the others don’t know how to fight. I need to get stronger. But now I need to find Keith. I have half an hour for lunch so no time to waste.

-

“Cadet!” Oh shit, there’s no escape from this bastard. “Cadet. What are you doing here?”

I reluctantly come to attention. “Looking for Cadet Kogane, sir.” To my surprise he gives me one of his weird Iverson scoffs.

“Good luck cadet. No one has seen that degenerate since this morning, hasn’t shown up to any of his classes.” My heart sinks into the pit of my stomach, my face falls, and I start to sink into a slouch. Iverson’s face softens, just the tiniest bit. “At ease, cadet. I know you’ve taken it on yourself to watch out for him since the mission launch, but you need to give up on him, he’s just a distraction for you.” Iverson might as well have slapped me. “He needs to learn to be responsible for himself, not have you or anybody else babying him.”

“With all due respect, sir, I’m not going to give up on him, not now, not ever.” Iverson just stares at me for a moment. It almost looks like pity, the Iverson version of pity. What a weird experience.

“I won’t stop you, cadet, but don’t forget to be responsible for yourself.” His face changes again. I don’t think I’ve ever seen this many facial expressions from Iverson the entire time I’ve known him. “And if you do manage to find him, cadet, make sure you drag him to my office. He’s still in trouble for skipping class.”

“Yes, sir.” Not likely.

I don’t even have time to process that weird conversation. I’m out of time to find Keith. My stomach growls, a rude reminder that I missed breakfast. And with that, the devastating realization that I don’t have time to eat lunch. Damn it.

-

I manage to find him out at The Jump during dinner. This time I was smart and grabbed some food from the canteen before setting out. I know he heard me coming so I’m not worried about startling him.

“Keith, I thought I might find you here. Have you eaten at all today?” Start innocent, start safe, hopefully get him to lower his guard at least a little. He makes no indication that he’s heard me. Ok, got to try a little harder. I settle in, sitting beside him and decide to risk losing a hand by putting it on his shoulder. He is insanely tense. “Keith, I’m here. I’m here for you and I’m here with you. Please talk to me.”… Nothing. If he wasn’t sitting on the edge of a cliff I would get right up in his face, instead I settle for getting up and behind him, hooking my arms under his and pulling as hard as I can.

“Hey! Daph, what are you doing?! Get off!” He starts squirming and kicking trying to get out of my hold.

Ha! Words! It’s a start. “I can’t get all up in your face when you’re sitting on the edge of a cliff, so I’m fixing that.” He doesn’t make it easy, he never makes anything easy, but I manage to drag him back from the edge.

“Let me go!”

“No, not until you talk to me!” I drop him on his back and before he can get up I swing my legs over his lap and pin his arms so he can’t hit me. Thank goodness I’m still bigger than him because he is freakishly strong.

“Get off of me, Daphne!” I can hear danger in his voice. I’ve got seconds before he explodes and bolts.

“I’m not getting off until I have your attention. Do I have your attention?” He nods ever so slightly so I let go of his arms. He’s still glaring at me but at least he’s listening, I think. “I’m not going to ask if you’re ok because I know you aren’t. I know you skipped class this morning and I suspect you skipped your afternoon classes as well. I’m not going to get on your case about it because we both know you’ll hear more than enough about it from Iverson.”

I let out a breath I didn’t realize I’d been holding. Gently I continue, “I’ve been looking for you every spare moment I’ve had today, I’ve been so worried about you.” He at least has the decency to look slightly guilty about that. “I care about you.” I continue, softening my voice further, “I know this morning was a terrible shock. It isn’t fair and it isn’t right and I’m not going to stand for it, but we have to be smart about it.” Well that got his attention. Keith stares up at me in shock.

I lift one of my hands and slowly, carefully move to brush some of his hair out of his eyes. “I know I’ve been just another garrison golden child since I’ve gotten here, relentless in pursuit of my goal, never defying an order or stepping out of line. But now I believe the garrison is lying and I won’t stand for that.”

He isn’t looking at me, I need him to look at me. I take my hand from his hair and use it to turn his face towards mine. “Look at me, Keith.” He does. “We are going to find out what the garrison is hiding, we’re going to expose them, and we are going to find Shiro. Do you understand me?”

He nods. “Do you promise?”

“I promise.”

I can see the fight drain out of him, he looks exhausted, starving and miserable. He looks so alone, my heart breaks for him. But he isn’t alone and I have to remind him of that. I lean over him, searching his eyes for permission. When I find it I close the distance and kiss him like we’ve done 100 times before. I try to pour all my love, strength, and drive into the kiss, everything I have to let him know he is not alone. I will always be here for him. It seems to work and when I pull back he looks a little less miserable, a little less lonely. I climb off of him and get the food I brought for us.

“I brought some food so we can eat out here before we have to go back.”

“We don’t have to go back.”

“Yes we do. If we are going to do any of things I just promised you, we both need to go back. I can’t do it all alone. Besides Shiro worked so hard to keep you in the garrison, he really wanted that for you. You wouldn’t turn your back on that, would you?”  
He’s silent for a moment, a deep scowl setting on his face. I offer him a sandwich.

“I’m not hungry.”

“Keith, I’m willing to bet you haven’t eaten all day, at least try and eat a little bit. Please, for me?”

No response, but he does take the offered sandwich and digs in.

The sun is starting to set. We’ll have to head back soon but I don’t say anything just yet. I want both of us to have this moment in the peace and quiet before we go back and he has to face Iverson. My mind is racing. Plotting, planning and strategy has always been my strengths. How are we going to find out the truth, expose the garrison? We are just two cadets against an entire military organization, what chance do we have? I have to figure this out for Keith and for Shiro. We are going to need help but who can we trust?

The dread for Keith I woke up with is gone now. It wasn’t nearly as bad as I had thought. Unfortunately that dread was now replaced by an overwhelming task and no idea how to manage it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry for how horrifying the face looks! I am not good at drawing and I messed and and then had a fight with the white-out and tried again and it just look worse and worse so I eventually stopped and gave up. The face doesn't really matter, its the outfit I wanted to show.


	4. PS1e2 Black Eyes, White Lies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes you just end up in the right place at the right time, it doesn't matter how you get there.

I woke up alert, energy pulsing through my body. Whatever is going to happen today is going to be good for me. I need a little good right now. I haven’t been able to make any progress on exposing the garrison, I still don’t know where to start. I’m not sure how much longer Keith can keep himself in check either, the last couple of weeks have been really touch and go on that front.

 

I’ve managed to make a good friend in Special-ops but I don’t feel like I can completely drag him into this. Mark Greene, he’s a year older than me but we’re in the same class year. While I’m on track to specialize in Tactical and Communications, he’s looking at Technical and Heavy Armed Combat. But we both have a special interest in hand to hand combat, he’s made an excellent sparring partner. Outside of official training sessions he isn’t afraid to fight dirty with me, it’s a perfect arrangement. It’s not like future enemies are going to fight a clean, fair fight, it’s good to be prepared. Speaking of, we both have the morning block free so we made plans to go to the gym and spar, I better get down there if I want time to stretch before he arrives.

 

-

 

I’m just finishing my warm up with a couple of stretches when Mark walks in. “Damn Daph, you are freakishly flexible.”

 

Scoffing, I come out of the back bend, “Just because you have the flexibility of an arthritic grandpa doesn’t mean I’m a freak. My flexibility is merely above average.  It’s more like that of a gymnast or dancer, both of which, I will remind you, I was.”

 

“Touché.”

 

“Plus I’m not as big or as strong as you so I need every bit of flexibility I’ve got.”

 

“Yeah, you are a little thing. Fighting you is kind of like trying to swat a fly. Oh stop scowling and lets spar, I’ve been inching for a proper dirty fight for days.”

 

“You mean since I kicked your butt last time?” He’s giving me the hairy eyeball. I like hanging out with Mark, it’s not life or death, it’s not too serious, it’s just fun. “You just going to stand there all day or do you want to fight?”

 

“Bar no holds?”

 

“And hold no punches!” And just like that we’re off.

 

We fight with as much technique as we feel like, nothing more or less. He resorts to some ponytail pulling and I swing up onto his back and cover his eyes. Its good fun. We only have two rules when we fight like this: 1. if you knock your opponent unconscious or you get them to say ‘Uncle’ you win and have to stop beating them up, and 2. try not to break any bones or maim anyone because the garrison would not be pleased about that. My ultimate goal is to kick him in the head. It will be quite the feat if I can get my leg up that high with enough force to actually kick. I’m close but not quite there yet.

 

There are a couple of important things to remember when sparing, like for example ‘don’t let your guard down’ or the ever important ‘don’t get distracted by the sight of Keith sneaking into the gym in the special-ops compound, where he is definitely not allowed, while you only have one of your opponent’s arms secured.’ “Keith…”

 

And then I’m flat on my back and seeing stars.

 

“Daph! Daphne, are you ok?! How many fingers?”

 

“Ugh, give me a minute for the room to stop spinning.”

 

“I’m so sorry, I thought for sure you would block. What happened?”

 

“You got my fair and square, Mark, nothing else happened.” I turned my head to look for Keith. That was a mistake. “Ugh!”

 

“Stop moving! I hit you too hard! You probably have a concussion. Oh my god! You’re bleeding!”

 

I brought my hand up just under my eye and sure enough it came away wet and red. “Relax Mark, it’s probably nothing, face wounds bleed a lot. I don’t think I have a concussion, it’s probably just going to be a black eye. Half the people in this program are sporting one at any given time, it’s really no big deal.”

 

“I’m taking you to the infirmary right now!”

 

“Fine, I’ll go, but only if you stop freaking out.”

 

“I’ll stop freaking out when I know I didn’t break your eye socket.”

 

“You are so dramatic.” I start to sit up and try taking another look around for Keith but he seems to be long gone. I hope he’s ok.

 

“Nope, you aren’t going anywhere.”

 

“What? But I thought we were going to the infirmary?”

 

“We are but you are in no condition to stand.”

 

“What on Earth are you talking about, I’m totally fine to walk!" Mark swoops down, getting one arm under my knees and another behind my back. He lifts me off the ground with little difficulty. "Hey! Put me down right now!”

 

“Not gonna happen, cupcake.”

 

“Cupcake? What the hell?” He tries to pick me up bridal style but I continue to struggle. I will not suffer the indignation over a stupid black eye.

 

“If you don’t settle down I’m going to throw you over my shoulder and carry you to the infirmary that way.”

 

“You wouldn’t dare!”

 

“Try me.”

 

And I did.

 

And that’s how I ended up slung over Mark’s shoulder all the way from the compound, outside across the grounds, and all the way to the infirmary located at the exact opposite side of the garrison from us. It was pure luck that we didn’t cross anyone who would have yelled at us for our little display, but there were still plenty of cadets and instructors around who raised a few eyebrows. I mean it couldn’t have looked very good, a big dude carrying a smaller, bleeding girl who’s kicking, punching and cursing him out. But no one stopped us. That jack-ass just kept whistling and telling me to hold still. Bastard. Thank goodness the nurse kicked him out as soon as we got there.

 

Just like I thought, no concussion, no fracture, just a nasty bump and a black eye. Nothing that won’t be back at 100% in a few days. I told the nurse how bad Mark had freaked out and he just rolled his eyes.

 

As I stepped out of the infirmary I felt it, the pull. The thing I’ve been waiting for since I woke up was about to happen and not far from here. I hurried down the hall as fast as I could without being too conspicuous. I was being pulled down one hall then another until I found myself outside of the instructor’s offices. Then it just stopped. I didn’t have to wait long though. All of the sudden a little girl comes out of nowhere, walks up to Iverson’s office and picks the lock. What the hell! I don’t think she’s in the garrison, I don’t think I’ve ever seen her before. She does seem familiar though. I’m too stunned to move. This is it! This is what I was supposed to see. What is she up to?

 

If I had been in better condition mentally I probably would have tried to run interference when Iverson rounded the corner just a few minutes later, but I was still frozen, processing everything.

 

Iverson enters his office and all of the sudden there is a commotion. I hear the little girl yelling at him, calling him a liar. Iverson’s yelling back and then she’s thrown out of the office into the arms of a guard and escorted away.

 

What was that? Who was that? And why did they seem so familiar?

 

-

 

Later I caught up with Keith and told him what I saw.

 

“Sounds like she’s working against them like we are.” I considered that idea. It would be very convenient for us.

 

“I don’t know, Keith. I don’t even know who that little girl was. It would be nearly impossible for me to find her again.”

 

“That’s true, but maybe she’ll come back and try again. Then you can get some more information.” When he says that it hits me. The same impression as before, it’s like her energy signature.

 

Everybody has a different presence, a sort of feeling or impression I get when they are associated with a premonition, and now I knew hers.

 

“I have a feeling she’ll be back to try again soon. I don’t think she got what she came for this time around.”

 

“Is it a feeling or a ‘feeling’? You know the weird ones you get?”

 

I sigh. “The second one.”

 

“When?”

 

“I’m not sure, sometime soon. But there is something else that’s going to happen first.”

 

“What is it? What’s going to happen?”

 

“You know I don’t know what’s going to happen. I can’t see the future, I only get a very vague idea that something is going to happen. It’s very unhelpful.” But that’s a lie. Even though I can’t see the future there is no mistaking this feeling. It’s been growing and building all week, I can’t imagine it will be more than a few days from now. Very soon something is going to happen to Keith and I won’t be able to do anything about it. Very soon I’ll be on my own and I’m not ok with that.

 

“That’s a lie. You’ve gotten pale and I can feel the anxiety rolling off of you from here. What’s going to happen? What aren’t you telling me?” He makes a small little whine after his question. I’ve only heard it a few times and every time my heart just breaks.

 

“Nothing, Keith.” Another lie. “I’m just not feeling great, it’s been a long day.” Not technically a lie. “Which reminds me, what on earth were you doing sneaking into the special-ops gym? You know you aren’t allowed in there?” Complete subject change, smooth.

 

“I just wanted to check on you.”

 

“Now who’s lying? You never ‘just want to' check on me I’m always the one hunting you down.”

 

“I’m serious, you haven’t been yourself this week, Daphne. Every time I see you, you look tired and stressed. Something’s wrong, isn’t it?”

 

“I’m sorry Keith, I’m just a little overtired. The special-ops program is intense and I’m trying to figure out how to get the evidence we need and keep an eye on you.” All true. “That’s really all. Nothing to get upset about or get yourself in trouble over.” Not quite true.

 

“Ok, if you say so.” He looks disappointed like he knows I’m hiding something from him but won’t push the issue any further. I’m grateful for that.

 

“I don’t want you to get in trouble sneaking around the compound. Please promise me that you’ll message me next time you want to talk?”

 

“Ok, I promise.”

 

“Thank you.”

 

And because I can’t help myself and because it might be the last time I get to do this for a long time, I lean in and kiss him. It’s sweet, but it’s also sad. It’s like tonight I’m not the only one to get premonitions. Tonight we can both tell that what we have here won’t last much longer.

 

We stay like that as long as we dare but eventually we have to return to our separate barracks. As we part ways I am overwhelmed and I can’t help the tears that escape my eyes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, no picture this time. I do have one but it isn't finished. I wanted to post this chapter as soon as possible and I just don't have time to finish the drawing with finals starting tomorrow. I'll make sure to get it up eventually!


	5. PS1e3 It Never Rains but it Pours Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Daphne just can't catch a break these days and what trouble has Keith gotten himself into now.

There were whispers all around the garrison, even the special-ops barracks were filled with hushed conversations, not-so-covert glances in my direction, and conversations that stopped mid-sentence if I got too close. But I didn’t need any of that to clue me in to what had happened, I already knew in my heart. I knew what was going to happen. It was a premonition after all and those are never wrong. I didn’t get to see him at all this morning, I had testing in the simulator and by the time I was finally released for lunch, it had already happened.

 

I checked his dorm but he was already gone. I managed to grab some of the clothes he left behind and shove them in a bag. I was on my way to the canteen when Mark found me.

 

“Daph! Hey Daph, wait up. We have to talk about something.” I don’t stop walking, I’m a woman on a mission. If he really wants my attention he can catch up.

 

“I already know Mark, I don’t need you to tell me. Everybody is suddenly behaving strangely towards me, there is really only one reason that would happen. Plus I checked his room, I know he’s gone.”

 

“Oh, Daph, I’m so sorry. I know he was important to you.”

 

“IS, Mark. He _IS_ important to me and I haven’t given up yet.”

 

“Daphne, I know you’re upset but he is gone. He got into a fight with Iverson and from what I’ve heard, it wasn’t pretty.” At that I stop dead in my tracks. I turn around to face him and let my anger show in my face and color my every word. I don’t have time to deal with him right now.

 

“Mark, I’m going to tell you this exactly once so listen very carefully. I know Keith, I know how he thinks and I know where he will be waiting for me. What I don’t know is exactly how long he’s been gone or how long he’ll wait for me. So unless you want to fight me right here, right now, you will either get out of my way or help me get what I need and sneak out.” He looked like he wasn’t sure what he was going to do. I made a gamble asking him to help me to sneak out, I hope it pays off.

 

He sighs. “Alright, what do you need me to do?”

 

“Get me a speeder and an exit. I’ll meet you in 15 minutes once I’ve stolen some ration packs from food storage. Also find me a travel med kit.”

 

“Yes, ma’am.”

 

So my gamble payed off after all. Soon I have a bag filled with food and water rations, medical supplies, money, and Keith’s cloths. I’m free of the garrison using the speeder Mark liberated and the exit he provided. I owe him one, or maybe it’s just repayment for the black eye. Yeah, I’ll go with that one.

 

-

 

I found him exactly where I thought he’d be, The Jump. Shiro used to take him here all the time, they really bonded over their crazy stunts. I used to come here with Shiro too, he taught me the same tricks but we mostly used this place for a different purpose back then. I miss him like crazy. But I have no time to linger in the past when there is a problem in the present, sitting right in front of me.

 

“I thought I might find you here. I’m glad you waited for me.”

 

“Of course.”

 

“I went to your room and got the rest of your things.”

 

“Thank you, I didn’t have the chance to go back.”

 

“So I gathered. I also got you a med kit and plenty of rations.”

 

“Thanks.”

 

I just stood there for a moment, not sure what to do or say. Shiro would know what to do, he always does. But I have to try. “Keith…what are we going to do?” I can hear the undertones of defeat in my voice. Keith apparently heard it too. He whips his head around to really look at me for the first time, his eyes wide and frantic.

 

“We are going to do everything we can, we have to! We have to find Shiro!” I flinch back from the aggression in his voice.

 

“If we are going to do that…” I start slowly, “you know that means I have to stay here. I can’t go with you.” He looks down at the ground, shoulders hunched like he’s about to throw up every wall he’s ever had. Every wall I’ve spend countless hours patiently trying to break down and get past.

 

“I know, Daph.” I can feel something inside me start to crack.

 

“Keith, will you please look at me?”

 

“Daphne, we can’t keep doing this, we can’t hold on to what we have now. We need to focus with no distractions. We are a distraction for each other.”

 

I suck in a breath like I’ve been punched, I _feel_ like I’ve been punched. My heart breaks, but he isn’t wrong. “I understand and I accept, but just because we aren’t going to be involved like this anymore, doesn’t mean we aren’t a team. A team works together and supports each other. So if you think I’m going to stop caring about you because our relationship is changing again, you’ve got another thing coming. And the fact that I care about you isn’t going to stop me from accomplishing our goals.” Keith nodded but doesn’t otherwise respond. “So what are you going to do? Where are you going to go?”

 

“I don’t know yet. I don’t exactly have a plan.”

 

“I understand. There are enough food and water rations here for a few weeks, maybe a month if you’re careful. Keep in touch but be careful of the garrison monitoring communications. If at all possible we should try to meet here to talk about whatever comes up or if you need my help. Promise me, Keith. Promise me you’ll keep in touch and let me know if you need help.”

 

“I promise.”

 

We stare at each other for a minute, just drinking each other in. I knew I would see him again but I didn’t know when that would be.

 

“I need to go, Daph.”

 

“I know, Keith. So do I.” But I wasn’t letting him go quite yet. I opened my arms for a hug and even though I know he isn’t much of a hugger, he knows how much it means to me. He steps in and gives me a tight hug. It was filled with his anger, drive and desperation for answers. But underneath it all, his sadness and loneliness. It broke my heart all over again. I couldn’t imagine letting him go but all too soon he pulls away.

 

“Goodbye, Daph.”

 

“It’s not goodbye, Keith. It’s just until next time. We’ll see each other again.”

 

He smiles a bit. “Well, if anyone knows that for sure, its you. So, until next time, Daphne.”

 

“Until next time, Keith.”

 

I watched him ride off into the desert but only for a moment. I had to get back to base and sneak back in before class. Looks like I missed lunch again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So no pictures again today, I don't know when I'll be about to start those up again. Finals have just started and I already feel like I've been hit by a freight train. Also I've started thinking about doing little flash backs to Daphne's moments with Shiro or with the three of them together. I think I would keep them separate from the main story because I do not really want to contend with flashbacks in the main text, but it's just a fun little idea I've been tossing around.


	6. PS1e3 It Never Rains But it Pours part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When exactly did Daphne get so good at lying? Just kidding, this is what she's trained for.

I didn’t make it back in time to sneak in without getting caught. Time for a new plan. I’m in luck though, the normal commander I would have to report to is in a meeting with the admiral. She’s going to be out of her office until the end of the day and her replacement is pretty easy to manipulate if you happen to be a girl.

 

-

 

“Cadet, your afternoon instructors reported you as absent and you weren’t present in the special-ops compound at all. You didn’t have any known permission to be off base. Care to explain yourself, cadet?”

 

“I did leave the base without permission, sir. The last few months and especially the last few weeks have been extremely distressing.”

 

“That is not an acceptable excuse for your behavior today, cadet.”

 

“Yes, Sir. Today presented a particular challenge. As you probably know, Cadet Kogane, who I had a close friendship with, got into an… uh … altercation today and ran away from the garrison. I felt compelled to find him and make sure he was ok as well as try to get him to return and take responsibility for his actions. Unfortunately I was unable to find him.” I wonder when lying to the higher-ups got so easy for me.

 

“That still doesn’t justify your behavior.”

 

“I know, sir. I am very sorry.” Now I have him right where I want him, I’ve got this in the bag. “It’s just that on top of everything else going on… well it’s just … um.” I let my eyes well up a bit.

 

“Spit it out, cadet.” Hook

 

“Well I’m not really sure I should tell you, sir.” Line

 

“Cadet, now.” And Sinker

 

“It’s just that time...” He just looks confused. “Of the month, sir.”

 

Haha, the face he makes is priceless! He makes it too easy. Only practice keeps me from cracking a smile.

 

“Well… um, I-I see. I think that we can…um.” His face is so red!

 

I keep eye contact with him to increase the awkward. I make sure to look super sorry and even let a single tear slide down my face. I should have been an actor. He has to break eye contact before he can continue speaking.

 

“Well, cadet, it seems like…uh…like your record thus far is spotless, so I don’t think it will be necessary to…um…just report to the ground transportation garage during your free time tonight for a cleaning detail. I think we can leave it at that.”

 

“Thank you, sir.”

 

“Um, yes. So on your way, cadet.”

 

“Yes, Sir.”

 

I definitely got off super easy this time. It’s just too east to manipulate that man. A few hours of cleaning detail for one night is like nothing. I’m getting really good at this.

 

I wonder how often other cadets use the garrison’s own lessons against them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry Its so sort, and not proof read. I hate finals.
> 
> Finally got around to proof reading it (07/12/2019) lol


	7. PS1e4 So All I Had To Do Was Ask?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Daphne has a lot on her plate, can you really blame her for letting some things slip through the cracks. All she needs is a break or two, one to rest and one in the case. Can she make either happen on her own or will she have to ask for a little help?
> 
> Also this is the first chapter to have an actual bit of the show in it!

I’m getting really tired of the same old routine of making no progress against the garrison. All I do it eat, train, sleep, repeat. I still have no idea where to start. It’s not like I can just walk right into someone’s office, hack into their computer and classifies files, and steal the information. That’s just not something I’m capable of, I’m not a hacker. And it’s not like I can drag Mark into this. It would be too risky.

 

I need to face facts. I’m in over my head. I made promises to Keith that I have no way of keeping. I mean, I told him that we would find Shiro. Shiro is lost in space! How am I supposed to get us into space?! Not to mention I haven’t even heard from Keith since he left. I have no idea where he is or if he’s ok. It’s all too much for me.

 

-

 

I know I look like shit. I’ve hardly been able to sleep or eat since Keith left and I wasn’t doing great prior to that either. Yesterday I passed out during training and woke up in the infirmary. The nurse gave me a long lecture about staying hydrated and remembering to eat. It’s not like I forget, I’m just not hungry.

 

Then I got an earful from my commanding officer on my responsibility to myself. I really just couldn’t bring myself to care, I was just numb through the entire thing. Apparently it showed because next thing I know, I’m being ordered to report to the garrison psychiatrist.

 

-

 

“So what brings you here today?” I just shrug my shoulders. It’s not like she doesn’t know I was ordered to be here. I really don’t want to talk to her and I can’t exactly tell her what’s going on so I just stay quiet. “I understand you may be reluctant to talk to me but I am going to need some communication from you if we are going to figure out how to help you.”

 

I wouldn’t say I’m reluctant to talk exactly, it’s more that I don’t feel compelled to talk. That and the fact that silence is safe, if I don’t talk, I don’t give myself away. So I just sort of stare at her for a minute. Sort of at her, sort of through her. She doesn’t say anything, just waiting for me to speak. It’s a solid psychological tactic. Normally it makes people increasingly uncomfortable until they speak. It’s not working on me, I just don’t care. She looks down to write some notes. I use the break in eye contact to turn and look out the window.

 

In the days before the Kerberos mission, Shiro would be out there flying at this time of day. Keith would be bored out of his mind in the simulator running drills. To be honest, I don’t know what Matt would be doing right now. He had just graduated before the mission so I don’t know what his officer schedule would have been like. Commander Holt, Sam, would be in his lab, but then again he was always in his lab.

 

It occurs to me that I haven’t been to see Colleen yet to offer my condolences. Probably because I haven’t had the time, I’ve hardly had the time to process what’s happened myself. That and the fact that I don’t believe they are dead so condolences aren’t exactly the first thing on my mind.

 

I’ve only met Colleen once and I’ve never met Matt’s younger sister, Katie, I think he said her name was. I don’t know if I’d be welcome. But then again maybe I would. And I need to buy myself some time to, not mourn, but to breathe and evaluate myself I guess. It occurs to me that there is probably only one way to buy myself that time. I have to play along with the psychiatrist. Or play them, whatever works. Now, in order to play along I need to speak.

 

I take another moment, getting myself ready to speak. Without looking away from the scene outside the window, “I haven’t been able to visit Colleen Holt yet.” My voice comes out sounding strange in my ears.

 

“Why do you want to see Colleen?” The scratching of her pen is irritating me.

 

“I was close with Matt and knew Commander Holt fairly well. It seems wrong that I haven’t gone to see her yet.” Scritch scratch, scritch scratch.

 

“Why haven’t you? What’s stopping you?”

 

“The garrison. Training is time consuming and exhausting. I haven’t even had time to-to” I’m struggling to force my next words out of my mouth. It feels too much like an admission of defeat, but I have to if I want this. I take a shaky breath before continuing. “To…um… grieve, I guess, for myself.”

 

I finally tear my eyes away from the window, I don’t want to see the world continuing on as if nothing has changed. I see her frown as she records my response. That pen is really starting to irritate me.

 

-

 

We, mostly she, talk for a while longer. She asks me about Shiro and Keith, about how I’ve been feeling, sleeping, and eating since the mission launch and the mission loss. She keeps poking and prodding her way into my mind and into my life, I give her as little as possible. I keep going back and forth between feeling irritated at the sound of the pen and feeling the numbness that’s been hanging over me for a while.

 

“Can you cut that out!?” I snap after a while.

 

“I’m sorry. Cut what out?” She looks quite surprised at my sudden outburst. Probably because, so far, getting me to say anything has been like pulling teeth.

 

“The pen. The scratching noise is driving me up the walls.” That’s rather unlike me to be irritated by a little sound like that, I wonder if it’s something else.

 

“I’m sorry, I’ll stop for now. I may need to make a few more notes as well talk but I will try to keep it to a minimum. Do you often get irritated by noises like that?”

 

“No.”

 

“Well you did mention how you haven’t been sleeping much or eating well so it’s quite possible that those two things are making you a bit more irritable that usual.”

 

“Maybe…” And as logical as that sounds, I know it isn’t it. I take a moment to think it over while she studies me. And then it hits me, I’m such a dumbass. I haven’t mistaken a premonition like that in a long time. I’m not irritated at the pen, not really, I’m being pulled out of this room for something important. The fact that I’m not moving or acknowledging the feeling is the irritation and because I’m so distracted I misinterpreted it as irritation at the pen! I need to get moving, I think it has something to do with the little girl from before. I just need to figure a way out of here.

 

“You look like you just realized something.” I think I can use this.

 

“Yeah, I just realized that I haven’t eaten anything yet today and that’s giving me a bit of a headache which is what’s making me irritable. Is it ok if we leave it here for today? I want to get something to eat while I’m thinking of it or I might forget and not eat until who knows when.” She looks a little hesitant at the idea at first but as soon as I mention that I might forget to eat, she relents.

 

“Ok, we can wrap it up here for today but I want you to come back at the same time next week to talk to me again. Also I’m writing you a prescription for some mild sleep aids and antidepressants.” What? Ok, not going to argue with her right now, also it might be nice to get some sleep. “I’m also going to recommend to your commander that you be given some time off to go visit Mrs. Holt in the next few days. If you would like to, that is.”

 

Oh wow, I thought I was going to have to work harder for that one.

 

“Yes, please.” She nods, hands me the prescriptions and note for my commander and leads me out of her office.

 

-

 

I hurry down the halls, fairly sure I’m being led to Iverson’s office again. When I get to the hall I walk casually past his office, its dark, he isn’t there but that doesn’t mean it’s empty. I just have to wait out of sight.

 

It turns out that I don’t have to wait long. I watch as Iverson comes down the hall and walks to his office, he stops in the door way.

 

“You again? Get off my computer! How did you get past the guards?” He walks into his office as he yells. I get a bit closer. I can hear her yelling back at him.

 

“You said the spacecraft went down due to pilot error. I saw the video feeds from your probes.” Oh, she’s good. “There’s no evidence of a crash anywhere on Kerberos!”

 

Oh my god, she did it. She hacked into his computer and found evidence that they’re lying.

 

“Those feeds are classified! I could charge you with treason for hacking into them.” I see him dragging her out of his office and non to gently.

 

“Where’s my family?”

 

Family? She must be Matt’s little sister. That’s convenient.

 

“Escort Miss Holt off the premises and make sure every guard knows she’s never allowed on Garrison property ever again.” That, however, is not so convenient.

 

“You can’t keep me out! I’ll find the truth! I’ll never stop!” Good, she’s a fighter. I could use someone like that on my side.

 

I see her get dragged down the hall and out of sight by the guard. I can’t do anything for her right now but I’m already formulating a plan for how to get her back into the garrison and back on the hunt for the truth.

 

I head down the corridor, going as fast as I dare to give the psychiatrist’s note to my commander, and I guess afterwards get these prescriptions filled. It feels good to have something to do again, a new lead to follow, a direction to go in.

 

And if the commander noticed anything different about her, she attributed it to approval to go visit Mrs. Holt the next afternoon and didn’t think anything more of it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wasn't planning on this going up so soon but I was just so inspired to finish it and then I just had to get it up. it will be a bit before I get anything else up because of finals and moving. And I know I keep saying that but this time I mean it because I have no more pre-written at this time. I don't expect to post again until the end of the week but we will see how it goes. 
> 
> The interaction between Katie (Pidge) and Iverson was taken from a flashback in Season 1 episode 5 "Tears of the Balmera" with my own commentary from Daphne's point of view added. The dialogue between Katie and Iverson is not my original work but the property of the creators of Volton.


	8. PS1e5 Operation Gunderson Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Daphne prepares to expand the team and the beginnings of Pidge Gunderson.

My first visit to Colleen and Katie went much better than I could have imagined. Colleen was welcoming and I was able to get a good idea of Katie’s deal was. She’s brilliant, strong, and defiant. In other words, she’s perfect for the job I’m going to ask her to do today.

 

I feel like the last time I was over, we were sizing each other up almost. It was like she knew something was up and that I was watching her. But then again she won’t really talk to me beyond yelling about the garrison lying. She’s going to need to get over that if she’s going to infiltrate the garrison. But it also gives me an excuse to give Colleen so that I can talk to Katie alone. I want as few people to know about this plan as possible, there is so much potential for this to go horribly wrong.

 

In other good news, I’ve made contact with Keith! He’s okay, and located out in the dessert not too far from the Garrison. He told me he was drawn out there by a strange feeling and has been investigating an energy signature. I went out there one day to investigate with him, we didn’t find anything and I didn’t feel any mysterious pull like he described but we did register the energy on some equipment and I could feel it resonating with me as if it was in my soul.

 

I only told him a bit about Katie and what I was planning, I will tell Katie just as much about him. The fewer people who know the whole plan, the better. I keep reminding myself of that as I am on my way to the Holt household once again.

 

If Katie is willing to join me in this, I have everything we need to get started: a stolen data pad , garrison registration forms, and blank fake ID forms . I also brought along Keith’s old cadet uniform, not strictly necessary for the plan but it might be helpful and it’s not like Keith has any use for it anymore.

 

As I arrive at Katie’s house and step out of the transport I realize that if I go through with this I’ll be turning my back on the garrison for good. And it’s not only the Garrison I’ll be turning my back on, but also my hopes and dreams for a life outside of the crown, to be like my mom, and the only place that ever accepted and trained me for who I was and not the title I carried. But I have no choice, I’m turning my back on the only place I’ve ever wanted to be because my mission is bigger than what I want and I can’t turn my back on that.

 

-

 

As I am sitting in Katie’s room explaining parts of my plan to her, she visibly starts to hate me less and get more and more interested. Finally I finish pitching my idea to her, or at least as much of it as I am planning on telling her.

 

“You’re crazy.” Katie states totally deadpan. “But if this fake ID process is reliable as you say it is, which by the way, how do you know this? And if you can fake my entrance exams, then the rest of the plan should work just fine.”

 

“Well I wasn’t exactly planning on faking your entrance exam scores.” I stood there a bit awkwardly having not even considered faking those. “I had just assumed you would take them at your school, like most people, and instead enter the false identification info. I mean if you want I could fake then, might be a bit of a challenge, but I don’t think we need to. You are brilliant, Katie, and I think you can absolutely pass on your own.” She considers this for a second and then smiles the first real smile I’ve seen on her, even if it is a bit diabolical.

 

“Alright, I can do that. It won’t be hard to fool my school’s computer systems into accepting fake credentials. Now I guess we just have to make them.”

 

“Here you go.” I hand her the data pad, registration forms, and ID forms. “Fill these out and I’ll first get the ID information finished and then I’ll be able to register you with the program.” She starts filling it out.

 

“Where did you say the fake ID was being processed?”

 

“I didn’t, and I won’t.” She looks at me with a raised eyebrow. “Too many moving pieces and things that could go wrong. The less you know the better. It’s best if I’m the only one who knows the whole plan and the entirety of who’s involved so if one person gets caught, the whole mission doesn’t come crumbling down.”

 

“Smart.” She states with what I can only assume is a tone of grudging respect. “But I do have a few questions I want answered.”

 

“Ok, I won’t promise any answers through.”

 

“Fair enough. How many other people are involved in this operation of yours?”

 

“One, but I have a small team of people who do what I say without asking questions, or too many of them at least.”

 

“Does this other person know about me? And do I get to know who they are?”

 

“They know who you are and that I am in contact with you but they will not know what your fake identity in the Garrison will be nor will they know exactly what you are doing. And no you do not.”

 

“That doesn’t seem fair.” She pouts and I give her a rueful smile.

 

“All’s fair in love and war.” She pops up a bit from the forms she was filling out. Something I said must have caught her interest.

 

“So which is it then, love or war?”

 

“Both.” I fix her with a stare. “No more questions now. Are you finished with the paperwork?”

 

“Almost I just need to come up with a name.”

 

“Any particular name you like?”

 

“Pidge!”

 

“Alright, Pidge it is. Do you have a last name?”

 

“Um…no I can’t think of anything.” We just shrug our shoulders.

 

“We can just let the ID people pick a random one if you want.”

 

“Sure, that works for me.”

 

“Then it’s settled. Welcome to the team, Pidge.” I give her a smile, collect my things, and leave. I have some calls to make and stolen equipment to return. What a day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry this took so long to get up and that its so sort. I wanted to give you guys something before too long. Please leave comments or kudos if you like my work, I am an insecure first time author and it would be really appreciated!


	9. PS1e5 Operation Gunderson Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A bit about Pidge's first few days at the Garrison and then a bit about Daphne's last.

Katie and I were set to meet on the roof of the cadet barracks 10 minutes after lights out. She had started at the garrison a few days ago under the alias of Pidge Gunderson, a boy specializing in communications. I suppose I should start calling him Pidge. He should show up on the roof any moment.

 

Another minute passes in silence while I wait in the shadows. Its been nearly 15 minutes, I'm starting to get ever so slightly worried that he might have gotten caught. But before I have time to figure out what I might do about that, he shows up. I step out to meet him.

 

"Hey, sorry I'm late. I almost got caught."

 

"It's alright, I was starting to get worried about that, but I'd rather you be a little late than in trouble." We walk over near the edge of the roof and sit together. He starts to pull some equipment out of his bag. It doesn't look like garrison tech. He doesn't say anything about it and just keeps setting up. After a few minutes my curiosity gets the best of me.

 

"What's all this?"

 

"With this thing I can scan all the way to the edge of the solar system. I built it."

 

"That's impressive. Are you planning on staying out to scan tonight?"

 

"Yeah, I want to get started as soon as possible." As a fellow communications specialist I am incredibly curios about the tech and I was to touch it, but I manage to contain myself.

 

"Ok, that sounds fine but I need to head back soon so let's talk first and then you can get to scanning after. Sound good?" He shifts his focus back to me, somewhat.

 

"Yeah, ok."

 

"So first things first, is everything going smoothly infiltrating the garrison as Pidge Gunderson? No one is suspicious?"

 

"No issues so far but I am making sure to avoid Iverson's direct line of sight for now."

 

"Smart. What about hacking the computer system and getting the info, any progress there?"

 

"Not yet. I'm working on a few things to hack the system but it's kind of hard without access to Iverson's office."

 

"Fair point. Keep me posted on any developments."

 

"Will do. Anything to report from our externally located partner?"

 

"Nothing really, just more of the same. But, Pidge, don't expect too much in the way of information on that front."

 

"I know, I know, it's safer this way. Better if as few people know the whole thing as possible. I get it." Just make sure to tell me any information that might be relevant to finding my family."

 

"I promise." I got up and started walking across the roof to sneak back to my room as Pidge turned his attention back to his equipment. Just before I exited the roof I turned back to him. "And, Pidge, one more thing." He looked up. "Welcome to the Garrison."

He smiled a little evil-genius sort of smile but didn't respond beyond a little wave off as I disappeared into the dark staircase. I have a good feeling about this.

  

-

 

The arrangement I have with Pidge and Keith works out rather well for a time. Pidge and I meet regularly, usually once a week unless something comes up. Communication with Keith is a little more sporadic, we don't meet in person again but we leave message-in-a-bottle type communications for each other at The Jump. I go out there every few days to check for something from him but more often then not I leave empty handed. 

 

Pidge created a flash-drive like thing that I might be able to use to get the information we need. It's supposed to hack Iverson's computer for me? But I have to get it to Iverson's office, plug it into his computer, and give it a few minutes to work. Unsurprisingly I haven't had a chance to use it yet. 

 

We carry on as best we can for some time until the premonitions start to build once more. I haven't had one since I met Katie quite some time ago. Keith has also said that something is going to happen soon according to his...well whatever it is he is doing. Also Pidge is picking up increasing activity in the alien radio chatter he's monitoring. Whatever is going to happen is going to be big and I have to stay on high alert. 

 

-

 

And that's how I ended up here, sprinting down the garrison halls, alarms sounding, ready-bag over my shoulder, hell bent on getting into Iverson's office, gabbing the information and leaving.

 

 

 

 

\- End of Pre-Season One of Hold No Punches: A Voltron Fanfiction -

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So that wraps up Pre-Season 1 of Voltron. The next chapter I post will cover events from the first episode of season 1.  
> Please note that I will not cover every single scene of every single episode. I will do scenes that I am altering and ones that I invent that take place between scenes in the show or episodes of the show. It can be assumed that scenes I do not address occur exactly how they did in the show.  
> Please if you like this fanfic leave kudos and comments, It would mean the world to me!


	10. S1e1 The Rise of Voltron Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The first part of episode one of Voltron plus Daphne (And her smart-ass commentary)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's a long one...
> 
> Also I switched to third person because there is just so much going on and Daphne isn't privy to all of it.

Daphne checked her data pad again while she ran. Pidge had sent her the hacked video feed from the field hospital. It was definitely Shiro and she wanted nothing more than to run to him and break him free but as soon as she identified Iverson's voice, she knew she had to sneak into his office while she had the chance. Daphne could have stared at Shiro's face forever but she had a job to do. A job that required that she watch where she was going and not run into any walls.

 

Iverson's office! She had made it without being questioned by anyone. It was now a simple matter of picking the lock and slipping into his office. Even the data stick Pidge had given her was working without issue so she risked another glance at the video feed. She looked just in time to see Keith burst into the room and kick some ass. Shortly after he cut Shiro from that table, another boy came in... Who is that? A slender boy with a tan and brown hair seemed to be picking a fight with Keith. She had turned her volume off so she couldn't hear what they were saying but Keith seemed just as clueless as her as to the new boy's identity. Another boy entered as well followed by ... Pidge?!? Oh no, this just got a lot more complicated.

 

"Shit, shit, shit. Can't you go any faster?!" Because everybody knows that whisper yelling at technology is super effective. Glancing back and forth between the progress report and her data pad, she watches the group of five exit the camera's field of view, hoping they were leaving the garrison because they were all caught on camera. Unfortunately Daphne had no way of deleting that footage, or the security footage of her sneaking into Iverson's office. Time to get out of here.

 

-

 

Daphne's escape was going way too smoothly. She had her ready-bag on her back, data stick with garrison damning footage in her pocket, the speeder was right where she had left it, and most miraculously of all, there were no guards to sneak past. Way too easy.

 

She met her first obstacle a little ways out where two garrison transports were crashed into each other with instructors standing around. Well, it was too late now, she had been spotted so she made the decision to just blast past them. Those transports weren't going to go anywhere anytime soon. She pulled on her hood to at least try and cover her highly identifiable hair.

 

After a bit she came across several functional transports. These immediately gave chase! She knew that if she could make it to The Jump they wouldn't be able to follow her off the cliff. There was only one problem with that plan... Daphne hadn't practiced that cliff jump in over a year. Oh well, trial by fire it is.

 

She continued to maneuver, make a few jumps, and passed another crashed transport. They were hardly able to keep up with her! And The Jump is dead ahead. It's now or never. She takes a deep breath to steady her nerves as the cliff gets closer and closer and she's airborne for a second!

 

Then she starts to fall. Falling, falling, she needs to time everything just right. Without letting the rapidly approaching ground scare her, she pulls up just in time. Now it’s just a strait shot to Keith's shack.

 

-

 

Ok, so maybe she didn't do the cliff diving jump thingy quite right, she was never very good at it to begin with. And maybe she broke the speeder, just a bit. Just a little bit. Just enough that it crapped out about 50 ft from the cliff base and she had to walk the rest of the way to Keith's shack. She got there a little after dawn, and because she was on foot no one heard her coming until she opened the door.

 

The boy with the tan from the video feed, who had been reclining on the couch, jumped up and made a rather undignified noise of alarm. Pidge simple looked up for a moment from where he was working on... whatever he was working on... with the other boy before returning to his work. The other boy scrambled back in alarm. Keith and Shiro looked over from their place in front of Keith's conspiracy theory style board. Keith didn't seems surprised at all, Shiro looked stunned. All this happened in an instant but Daphne only had eyes for Shiro.

 

They both stood frozen for what felt like an eternity before Daphne surged forward, throwing herself at Shiro who wrapped her in his arms and held her tight. Daphne was the first of the two to speak.

 

"I missed you." Understatement of the year right there. Shiro chuckled softly into her hair before responding.

 

"I missed you too." Daphne pulled back a bit to get a good look at him. The white hair and scare across his face were new, as was the arm, but none of that bothered her; she wasn't even looking at any of it. She was looking into his eyes, looking for the man she knew and loved who had left her some time ago. She wanted to make sure it was really him. And it was.

 

They stood there drinking each other in until the tan boy cleared his throat. "ahhem! Get a room you two." He said in a rather condescending manner. "Who are you anyway? Who is this chick?!"

 

"My name is Daphne and I think the better question is who are you? You aren't a part of my team."

 

"Your team???" His eyebrows shot up and even Shiro looked a little confused at that.

 

"Yes, my team. Covert and need-to-know only. Now, I'll ask one more time, who are you?"

 

"I'm Lance, fighter pilot at the garrison." Daphne scoffs a little at that.

 

"Not anymore you aren't."

 

Lance practically explodes, "What does that mean!?!" Totally unfazed, Daphne moves to put her things down, sits on the floor, and shakes sand out of her shoes.

 

"It means that you aren't a cadet at the garrison anymore, none of us are. In case you haven't noticed, you all ran away last night and all of you are identifiable on the video feed rescuing Shiro. I'm not a cadet anymore because I ran just like you all did but not until I had broken into Iverson's office and stole the files I needed." That got quite a reaction.

 

Lance gives a high pitched, "You what?!"

 

Pidge jumped up excitedly, "Where is it?" The boy next to him just stares, open mouthed like a fish.

 

Keith says nothing, just smirks a bit. And finally Shiro chimes in with an almost dangerous, "You broke into Iverson's office and stole what I am going to assume was classified information?"

 

"Yes, I did." She fixed him with a determined stare. "And I would do it again and again if I had to. I did it for you." He looked like he was going to protest but before he could even open his mouth another interrupted.

 

“Where is the data stick?” Pidge asked for a second time.

 

“Right here.” Daphne pulled the stick out of her pocket and walked it over to him. Once she handed it over, she turned to the boy next to Pidge.

 

“Sorry, I’ve been a bit rude. My name is Daphne, my friends call me Daph. What’s your name?” The boy visibly relaxes at the easy nature with which she introduced herself.

 

“My name’s Hunk, my friends call me, well uh, Hunk I guess.”

 

“It’s nice to meet you, Hunk. What are you working on?”

 

“It’s a Voltron Geiger counter!” He seemed so proud of himself.

 

Daphne turned to Pidge in confusion. Why did Hunk know about Voltron?

 

Pidge, for his part looked unbothered, he just shrugged his shoulders and said, “Lance and Hunk followed me to the roof and saw what I was doing so I told them.”

 

“You told them?! How much did you tell them? What part of ‘top-secret mission?’…” She didn’t even finish her question, just moved her hand to pinch the bridge of her nose.

 

“I didn’t tell them everything! I didn’t tell them about you or Keith or the mission to expose the Garrison!”

 

“WHAT!” Lance shrieked.

 

“Oh, oops.” Pidge at least had enough decency to look a little guilty at that.

 

“I have so many questions!” Lance began loudly. “What do you mean you didn’t tell us about Keith? You didn’t know who Keith was! You said ‘WHO’S KEITH?’”

 

“Well I didn’t know his name or what he looked like, just that there was someone working on the outside!”

 

Daphne audibly groaned before snapping, “Okay! Enough!” The words that followed contained no bite, they rang hollow. “I kept my promises, that’s it, mission over. I’m not going to talk about it anymore. Keith, Pidge, tell them whatever you want.” She then turned to Shiro. “I’m done. Shiro, you’re in charge…yeah.”

 

As she started to head out the door to get a few moments to herself, Shiro thought he heard her whisper, “…never take charge, I fuck it up every time.” He almost followed her out but decided to give her some space instead.

 

-

 

Before long Hunk and Pidge had finished their device and everyone set out to find the Voltron. The group walked in silence for a while letting Keith take the lead, Daphne trailed behind the rest of the group. Partially because of earlier and partially because she hadn’t slept in nearly two days. Keith led them to a spot that looked the same as all the other spots to her, but apparently this is where they wanted to be. They stopped. Eventually it was Lance who broke the silence.

 

“Okay, I admit it. This is super freaky.”

 

“I’m getting a reading.” Hunk said. He began walking and everyone else followed until he led them to the mouth of a cave. “Whoa.”

 

Once inside Daphne began to notice a lot of strange carvings on the cave walls. She wasn’t the only one.

 

“What are these?” Shiro asked.

 

“These are the lion carvings I was telling you about.” Keith said. “They’re everywhere out here.”

 

Lance wandered over to one of the walls to inspect the carving. “Hmm.” He swiped his hand over the wall to get a better look. Suddenly carvings all over the cave lit up in a bright blue light. “Whoa. Whoa! What?”

 

“They’ve never done that before.” Keith says before they realize the floor under them is beginning to glow and crack. Suddenly they’re all falling through the floor, screaming, and … in water?

 

They are quickly deposited into a shallow pool farther down in the cave system. Lance is the first one to get his bearings. Gasping he looks up and says “They are everywhere.”

 

Daphne follows his gaze and there it is. A giant, mechanical, blue lion surrounded by what appears to be a blue force field.

 

Pidge, ever the practical one, asks what everyone is thinking. “Is this it? Is this the Voltron?”

 

“It must be.” Shiro supplies.

 

“This is what’s been causing all of the crazy energy out here.” Keith states before leading the way towards the lion. “Looks like there’s a force field around it.”

 

“Does anyone else get the feeling this is staring at them?” Lance asks as he walks back and forth on his way to the lion.

 

“No.” Shiro deadpans.

 

Lance continues his weird walking thing. “Yeah. The eyes are totally following me.” Daphne is starting to wonder when the last time Lance slept was.

 

Keith reached the force field first. “I wonder how we get through this.”

 

Then Lance supplies one of the most ridiculous ideas Daphne thinks she has ever heard, “Maybe you just have to knock.” He knocks twice and to her utter amazement, it works. Maybe it wasn’t such a ridiculous idea after all. And something is happening. Lights and wind and everybody is yelling until they all just stop and stare, transfixed by something she can’t see. It lasts barely a moment, silence broken by a chorus of whoa’s. Once again Lance is the one to speak first.

 

“Uh, did everyone just see that?”

 

“No.” But no one seems to hear her.

 

From his place on the floor, Hunk yells, “Voltron is a robot. Voltron is a huge, huge, awesome robot!”

 

Pidge chimes in, “And this thing is only one part of it! I wonder where the rest of them are.”

 

Shiro stares up at it with determination. “This is what they’re looking for.” Who? Daphne wonders. She must have missed a lot while walking through the desert.

 

Daphne has never seen such naked awe on Keith’s face before. “Incredible.” And suddenly the lion is leaning forwards. Hunk and Pidge are screaming. Shiro and Keith look ready to fight. But how could they possibly fight that? Daphne just stands there, it’s not like anything she is capable of would make any difference if the lion decided it didn’t like her. It opens its mouth and extends… a ramp? Lance charges forward and everyone quickly follows.

 

Lance quickly finds the cockpit and settles into the only chair in sight. “Here we go.” It lurches him forward and suddenly screens all around the cockpit light to life. Another chorus of whoa’s can be heard all around, even Daphne has to admit, this is pretty ‘whoa’ worthy. “All right! Very nice!” Lance continues before Hunk interrupts.

 

“Okay, guys, I feel the need to point out, just so that we’re all, you know, aware. We are in some kind of futuristic alien cat head right now.”

 

“Whoa. Did you guys just hear that?” This time Daphne is not alone in her confusion, nobody but Lance seems to have heard anything. Keith is the first to confirm this.

 

“Hear what?”

 

“I think it’s talking to me.” He leans on the controls, searching. Lance starts pressing buttons and all of the sudden the whole thing is moving. The Lion is roaring, Hunk and Pidge are screaming again, and everybody tries to find somewhere to hold on. For Daphne this means she is sandwiched between Keith and Shiro, and the back of Lance’s chair. There are worse places to be.

 

“Okay. Got it. Now, let’s try this.” No, Lance, let’s not try anything Daphne thinks and Lance crashes the lion through a solid rock face.

 

Oh my god! They are airborne! And spinning! And, oh, this is awful. Everyone is screaming, Keith manages to grind out, “You. Are. The. Worst. Pilot. Ever.” More screaming. The only thing keeping Daphne from hitting the back wall of the cockpit is Shiro’s solid presence behind her. Lance seems to think this is fun.

 

“Isn’t this awesome?”

 

“Make it stop. Make it stop.” Someone cries out, sounds like Hunk.

 

“I’m not making it do anything. It’s like it’s on autopilot.” And then they are being blasted off into space.

 

Keith has the good sense to ask, “Where are you going?”

 

“I just said it’s on autopilot! It says there’s an alien ship approaching Earth. I think we’re supposed to stop it.”

 

“What did it say, exactly?” Daphne is getting too much input to process exactly what’s going on, to process the fact that Pidge just asked what a ship had said.

 

“Well it’s not like its saying words. It’s more like feeding ideas into my brain, kind of.” Oh, well, this just keeps getting better.

 

Hunk has a different idea than fighting. “If this thing is the weapon they’re coming for, why don’t we just, I don’t know, give it to them? Maybe they’ll leave us alone. Sorry, lion. Nothing personal.”

 

From the moment everyone had entered the cockpit until now, the only two who had kept silent were Shiro and Daphne. Shiro now broke his silence. “You don’t understand. These monsters spread like a plague throughout the galaxy, destroying everything in their path. There’s no bargaining with them. They won’t stop until everything is dead.”

 

Hunk visibly shrinks from this new information. “Oh. Never mind then.”

 

Daphne is looking out at space when a ship appears seemly out of nowhere. She thinks to herself, ‘That ship just looks evil.’

 

“Holy crow! Is that really an alien ship?” Really, Hunk, crow?

 

“They found me.” If Daphne didn’t know any better, she would say the Shiro looked terrified.

 

The ship begins to fire. Multiple laser blasts at once are coming their way and sweeping the area around them. Daphne immediately begins looking for a pattern or a weak point in the ships offense. Pidge, of course, has the more practical suggestion.

 

“We’ve got to get it out of here!”

 

“Hang on!” Lance shouts as he beings some very disjointed maneuvering to avoid the beams. “All right. Okay, I think I know what to do.”

 

“Be careful, man. This isn’t a simulator.”

 

“Well, that’s good. I always wreck the simulator.” Lance responds to Pidge. At that moment Daphne realizes the Lance was the pilot Pidge was assigned to. The one he always complained about wrecking the simulator… Oh no, they were doomed.

 

Or maybe not. Lance managed to hit the alien ship with a laser beam of his own. It looks like it did a substantial amount of damage. “Let’s try this.” He pushes the lion is for close combat, scraping the claws on the side of the ship. The points of contact proceeds to explode. Either that is one flimsy alien warship of this ship is super OP. Shiro notices how quickly Lance adapts to the new machine.

 

“Nice job, Lance.”

 

“I think it’s time to get these guys away from our planet.” Lance turns the lion to head out of our solar system. Hunk and Pidge are freaking out again.

 

“Oh, no!”

 

“They’re gaining on us.”

 

“It’s weird.” Lance says. “They’re not trying to shoot us. They’re just chasing.”

 

“Okay, seriously,” Hunk begins, “Now we think having aliens follow us is good. I am not on board with this new direction, guys.”

 

Keith chimes in once more. “Where are we?”

 

This time it’s Shiro who answers him. “Edge of the solar system. There’s Kerberos.” There is almost disbelief in his voice.

 

“It takes months for our ships to get out this far. “ Pidge states, shocked. “We got out here is five seconds.”

 

And then a giant swirly thing just appears in the space ahead of them. Hunk voices what they are all thinking.

 

“What is that?”

 

The only answer we get to that question comes from Lance. “This may seem crazy, but I think the lion wants us to go through there.” As are as answers go, this isn’t really a good one. Pidge has the next logical follow up question.

 

“Where does it go?”

 

“I don’t know.” Not a good answer but a valid one. Lance continues. “Shiro, you’re the senior officer here. What should we do?”

 

“Whatever is happening, the lion knows more than we do. I say we trust it, but we’re a team now. We should decide together.” That’s what a good leader sounds like, Daphne thinks. She wishes she could be a confident leader like Shiro but she always fucked everything up.

 

Everyone gives their silent consent. “All right. Guess we’re all ditching class tomorrow.” Lance seemed to have forgot that they ditched class today as well, and not only that, they had ditched the garrison entirely.

 

And then they went through the thing.

 

It- was an incredibly uncomfortable journey, but Daphne took comfort in the fact that even though she had fallen to the back wall of the cockpit, both Shiro and Keith had their arms around her. They kept her from hitting her head and it also made her feel pretty safe despite all the craziness currently going on.

 

And then Hunk vomits. "So sorry."

 

"I'm just surprised it took this long." Oh, so Hunk was the vomiting engineer Pidge used to talk about.

 

Shiro was looking out, trying to figure out where they were. "I don't recognized any of these constellations. We must be a long, long way from Earth." A wormhole?

 

"The lion seems to want to go to this plant. I think... I think it's going home." Lance said as the lion began it's decent. "Guys, personal space. Hunk, your breath is killing me."

 

"Um, is it just me or is anyone else having second thoughts about flying through a mysterious wormhole? why are we listening to a robotic lion anyway?" He makes a fair point.

 

"It got us away from that alien warship, didn't it?"

 

And Keith, ever the smart ass, "I don't know if you've noticed, but we're in an alien warship."

 

"Oh, are you scared?"

 

"With you at the helm? terrified." Oh, those two were going to be trouble.

 

Shiro wisely decided to nip that conversation in the bud. "All right. Knock it off. No one's happy to be in this situation but we're here now. If we want to get through this, we've got to do it together." Daphne really did admire Shiro's confidence in the face of the unknown and his natural ability to lead. Pidge, however, wanted more than that.

 

"So what do we do?"

 

"First we find out where we're headed. Lance?"

 

"I don't know, I'm sorry. The Lion's not talking to me anymore. Wait! Wait, wait! Shh! Listen, I think I hear something."

 

Keith is the first to notice. "I hear it too."

 

Then Hunk, "It's, uh... It's kind of a... a high-pitched squeal?"

 

And then it hits them. Lance had farted.

 

"Lance, you are disgusting!" Daphne's first and only words in the blue lion.

 

"But seriously, there's a castle up ahead." And there it was. A huge white and blue castle, bigger than the one Daphne had grown up in. And it was on a very Earth-looking planet. As they approach, the lights glow even brighter.

 

"Keep your guard up." Shiro instructs.

 

"Something wrong?" Pidge asks.

 

"My crew was captured by aliens once. I'm not going to let it happen again."

 

They disembarked and stood in awe in front of the castle. Suddenly the lion stood up and roared. Hunk screamed yet again.

 

"No! I knew it was going to eat us! No!" But then the door opened and the lion did not eat them. "Oh, the door is open. Guess I was wrong about you." Everyone visibly relaxed. They decided to enter the castle. What else were they going to do?

 

"Hello?"

 

Daphne was horrified. "Hunk, what are you doing? Haven't you ever seen a horror movie before?"

 

"From the size of the lion I expected these steps to be bigger."

 

“But, Pidge, what about the size of the pilot’s seat in the lion? I was, well, it was us sized.”

 

In a flash the ceiling lights up and a disembodied voice speaks. “Hold for identity scan.”

 

Shiro tries to communicate with it. “Why are we here? What do you want with us?” He gets no answer. The only thing that happens is that the lights in the castle begin to turn on, illuminating certain areas. Most likely where the voice wants them to go. Pidge comes to the same conclusion.

 

“I guess we’re going that way.” Daphne wasn’t so easily swayed. But that way they went with Pidge leading them on.

 

Periodically as they walked Hunk would call out, “Hello?” Daphne wanted to slap some duct tape over his mouth. She brought up the rear of the group, she was very glad that she hadn’t left the garrison without her weapons and was currently armed to the teeth. The lights kept illuminating the path just ahead of the group until they came to a large circular room. Hunk calls out “Hello” once more.

 

Lance has the good sense, for once, to ask a decent question, “Where are we?”

 

Pidge stepped into the center, up to a raised panel. “It’s some kind of control room.”

 

Suddenly it activates and something begins to rise from the floor! Two somethings… someones?

 

Hunk askes, “Are those guys… dead?”

 

The first thing opens to reveal a beautiful girl with snow white hair and a lovely gown. She opens her eyes and gasps. “Father?” She calls, reaching out and then she’s falling.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, that was really, really long. Took me some days to do. I really hope you enjoyed it, please let me know if you did. Sorry about the crappy faces in the art again. Faces are hard :(


	11. S1e1 The Rise of Voltron Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The second part of the first episode of Voltron: Legendary Defenders.  
> Daphne and the group meet Princess Allura and Coran to form a fast alliance against the Galra.

“Father?” She calls. She reaches out and falls from her position. Lance rushes forward to catch her.

 

“Hello” He says, making a weird face at the alien girl.

 

“Who are you? Where am I?” She asks.

 

“I’m Lance. And you're right here in my arms.” Oh my god, Daphne thought, what a line. The girl didn’t seem to notice, she got distracted by something just to the left of his face.

 

“Your ears.” Ears? Daphne looked to the girl’s ears. They were pointed, like the elves in Daphne’s childhood picture books. She began to study the girl more carefully from her place across the room.

 

“Yeah?” Lance responded. The girl also had pink marks in her face. She frowns.

 

“They're hideous. What's wrong with them?”  Daphne figures all her species has pointed ears then. Lance looks quite taken aback.

 

“Nothing's wrong with them! They heard exactly what you said about them!” The girl grabs Lance by the ear, spins him around, and forces him to the ground. Daphne, Shiro, and Keith all tense, ready to fight if necessary. Hunk Hides behind Shiro. Daphne also takes into account her fine clothing and jewels, mostly the circlet on her head. Royalty?

 

“Who are you?” She yells. “Where is King Alfor? What are you doing in my castle?”

 

“A giant blue lion brought us here.” Lance is practically crying. “That's all we know.” That caught her attention.

 

“How do you have the Blue Lion?” She releases Lance’s ear. “What happened to its paladin? What are you all doing here?” She slows, her anger fades. No one on their side relaxes yet. “Unless -How long has it been?”

 

“We don't know what you're talking about.” Shiro responds. “Why don't you tell us who you are? Maybe we can help.” Daphne would say that Shiro is too trusting but she can feel that this is the right way to proceed, even if she doesn’t relax. She shifts her attention ever so slightly over to the unopened containment unit. Is that one going to open?

 

“I am Princess Allura of Planet Altea.” Daphne’s attention snaps right back to the girl. She had figured the girl was a princess already, but to own it without hesitation is a situation where she is vastly outnumbered by potential hostiles, that just didn’t make sense to Daphne. Unless she though it might protect her.

 

“I've got to find out where we are and how long we've been asleep.” Allura moves strait to the control podium in the center of the room.

 

“Okay, that's how that works.” Pidge said as he hovered over the controls.

 

The pod next to Lance opened just then. Everyone’s attention snapped in that direction, except the princess’s. A man with an orange mustache and hair and blue markings on his face emerged. Was this King Alfor? He immediately woke and identified Lance as a threat.

 

“Enemy combatants!” He leaps out at Lance who easily moves out of the way. Daphne was willing to bet that that man was not King Alfor. He nearly falls over and leans of the other pod for support.

 

“Quiznak!”  Interesting, must be an alien swear. “You're lucky I have a case of the old ‘sleep chamber knees’ otherwise, I'd grab your head like this, wrap you up like so-- One, two, three-- Sleepy time!” Daphne immediately decided that whoever this man was, he was not an imminent threat.

 

“Well, before you did that, I'd—“ Lance made a bunch of weird sounds and motions. “Like that.”

 

Daphne turned her attention to the situation at large, there was a lot to process. Shiro, Hunk, Pidge, and Keith were all watching Lance and the Man make fools of themselves. The princess was doing whatever on the control panel. Daphne had already determined that she could not read whatever language the screen was displaying. She took in the architecture of the room, the lights and glowing panels. She needed more information. Daphne moved closer to Keith’s side, trusting him to protect her, as she closed her eyes and tried to memorize Allura’s energy and then the man’s. She was just about to try to sense the future when a computer beeped and a gasp came from the princess.

 

“It can't be.” The man turns his attention to her.

 

“What is it?”

 

“We've been asleep for 10,000 years.” She looks horrified as if she’s reliving a waking nightmare. It is a moment before she speaks again. “Planet Altea and all of the planets in our solar system have been destroyed. Coran, Father is gone. Our entire civilization…” She looks defeated for only a moment and then anger flares. “Zarkon.” Shiro gasps suddenly.

 

“Zarkon?” He looks terrified.

 

“He was the King of the Galra. A vile creature and enemy to all free people.”

 

“I remember now I was his prisoner.” What? Daphne knew Shiro had been lost in space for a year and returned on an alien ship, but Shiro being anyone’s prisoner just didn’t compute.

 

“He's still alive? Impossible!”

 

“I can't explain it, but it's true. He's searching for a super weapon called Voltron.”

 

“He's searching for it because he knows it's the only thing that can defeat him, and that's exactly why we must find it before he does.” Finally, a plan of action.

 

At that moment Daphne feels two things; a strong wave of energy from the princess that feels like determination and magic, and a dark resonance. It’s almost as if the darkness heard the Princess’s declaration and ran off to tell its master. Daphne shivered. Keith caught the action out of the corner of his eye and turned his head towards her, giving her a look that asked if she was alright. She gave him a slight nod, a frown on her face, and looked away. He wasn’t at all convinced but did push her in front of the others. He would most likely ask again as soon as they were alone. Daphne wandered into the hall, she wasn’t feeling so good.

 

She sat out in the hall for a while, stomach rolling. At one point the man, Coran, left the room and returned a few minutes later with some green goo on a floating tray. He didn’t see her though, she was very good at hiding in the shadows. While Coran was gone, Shiro came out into the hall and looked around. It was clear that he didn’t really want to leave the room that everything was happening in so she stayed in her shady hiding spot. He went back into the room shortly. Daphne wanted a chance to think, to reach out, get an idea what’s going on.

 

She got far more than she bargained for. She could feel Allura in the next room and the darkness from before all around. Also in the castle there was a powerful energy source that was drawing her in, something she could explore another time. At the moment she was far more interested in the darkness, it seemed to be endless, or at least her senses didn’t extend as far as the darkness did. She could feel so much more than she was used to, maybe it was the power source close by that was ‘boosting her signal’ so to speak. But even with the assist she couldn’t feel Earth, her family, Mark, none of them. She let a single tear fall before gathering herself up and heading back in to everybody else.

 

She walked back in the room and the first thing she noticed was that the princess had found some space mice and was holding them in her hand. The second thing Daphne noticed was the alarm that started sounding. A red screen popped-up on the control panel near Coran.

 

“A Galra battleship has set its tracker to us!” Allura came over with the mice.

 

“How did they find us?”

 

Then Lance decided to chime in. “I'm not sure, but I bet it's Keith's fault.”

 

“Say whatever you've got to say to make yourself feel better. After getting us stuck on the other side of a wormhole!”

 

“I'll stick you in a wormhole!” Thank goodness Shiro was here to deal with their bullshit, Daphne was not in the mood.

 

“Stow it, cadets! This is no time to place blame. It's time to work as a team. How long before they arrive?” Shiro asks Coran.

 

“At their speed? Oh, well, carry the two.” He started counting on his fingers. “I'd say probably a couple of days.”

 

“Good.” The alien princess decides. “Let them come! By the time they get here, five of you will have reformed Voltron, and together, we will destroy Zarkon's empire!” In that instant Daphne knew exactly who was going to be a part of that team. Still in her position by the door, Daphne speaks.

 

“Shiro, Keith, Lance, Hunk, and Pidge, it will be you five.”

 

Allura looks a little surprised but quickly senses the energy that the others can’t feel, coming from Daphne. It answers her question but quickly raises more and the princess ends up confused. Coran, Lance, Hunk, and Pidge look shocked and start babbling a chorus of “What” and “How would you know” things like that. While Shiro and Keith only look mildly surprised. The shock only lasts until Hunk burps.

 

“Sorry. Food goo.”

 

Shiro takes back over from there. “Princess, there are five of these lions. How are we going to find the rest?” At that Allura starts to exit the room, she gestures for everyone to follow.

 

She leads everyone to some sort of control room where she steps onto a raised platform. Daphne recognizes the source of power she felt before is in this room, right above the princess. Coran begins to speak.

 

“King Alfor connected the lions to Allura's life force. She alone is the key to the lions' whereabouts.” She focuses and suddenly the room is filled with lights showing stars, planets, constellations and who knows what else. Pidge is also very impressed.

 

“These are coordinates. The Black Lion looks like it's in the same location as the Blue Lion.” Now it’s Coran’s turn to be impressed.

 

“Look at your primitive synapses firing away in their little brain cage.” Allura is a little less insulting in her response.

 

“Very observant. That's because the Black Lion is in the castle.” Coran continues the explanation.

 

“To keep the Black Lion out of Zarkon's hands, King Alfor locked it in the castle. It can only be freed if the other four lions are present.”

 

“As you have found, the lions choose their pilots. It is a mystical bond and cannot be forced. The quintessence of the pilot is mirrored in his lion. Together, they form something greater than science can explain.” Then she starts moving the map around. Daphne is awestruck. “The Black Lion is the decisive head of Voltron. It will take a pilot who is a born leader and in control at all times.” She moves the image of the black lion in from of Shiro. “Someone whose men will follow without hesitation. That is why, Shiro, you will pilot the Black Lion.” She begins to move the stars again.

 

“The Green Lion has an inquisitive personality and needs a pilot of intellect and daring.” She moves the green lion in front of Pidge. “Pidge, you will pilot the Green Lion.”

 

“The Blue Lion-“ Lance interrupts before she even starts to move the map.

 

“Hold up, let me guess. Takes the most handsome slash best pilot of the bunch?” She smartly ignores the interjection and moves right along. Daphne was starting to like this chick.

 

“The Yellow Lion is caring and kind.” She begins to move the map again. “Its pilot is one who puts the needs of others above his own. His heart must be mighty.” The yellow lion’s image settles in front of Hunk who looks from side to side to see who the princess is talking to. He seems a bit scared when he realizes the princess is talking to him. “As the leg of Voltron, you will lift the team up and hold them together.”

 

She summons an image of the red lion in her hands. “The Red Lion is temperamental and the most difficult to master. It's faster and more agile than the others, but also more unstable.” She releases the image, sending it over in front of Keith. “Its pilot needs to be someone who relies more on instincts than skill alone. Keith, you will fly the Red Lion.” He smirks at it. Lance, however, is not convinced.

 

“What? This guy?” Allura is unperturbed at the interruption.

 

“Unfortunately, I cannot locate the Red Lion's coordinates yet. There must be something wrong with the castle. After 10,000 years, it might need some work.” Coran is quick to reassure.

 

“Don't worry, we'll find it soon. They don't call me 'The Coranic' for nothing. It's because it sounds like mechanic. So Coranic, mechanic. It's not-- It doesn't sound exactly like it. It's similar.” Just then the images of the lions roar and bound across the screen to come together.

 

Allura continues. “Once all the lions are united, you will form Voltron, the most powerful warrior ever known, the Defender of the Universe.” The image of Voltron stands over and behind her. A formidable, if slightly ridiculous looking, robot. The lions form hands and feet as lions. It does not do Voltron any favors in the serious department. Hunk, however, has questions.

 

“Wait. Okay, we're going to be in there and flying lions. Got that part. How do lions turn into legs? Also is this going to be a long trip because I have to pee. Do you people pee?”

 

“We don't have much time.” Shiro starts. “Pidge and I will go after the Green Lion. Lance, you take Hunk and get the yellow one. Keith, you stay here. If you locate that Red Lion, go get it. Daphne stay with him.”

 

“In the meantime, I'll get this castle's defenses ready.” The princess states. “They'll be sorely needed.”

 

“I'll ready a pod and load the coordinates so that you can reach the Green Lion.” Coran adds and then everybody is on the move.

 

-

 

“We can only keep the wormholes that lead to the other lions open for two of your Earth hours, so you'll have to be quick about your work. The good news is that according to my readings, both planets are relatively peaceful. So, if you do get stuck, they could be relaxing places to live out the rest of your lives. Enjoy the trip!”

 

Nobody seemed particularly thrilled by that send off from Coran.

 

Allura stays on the platform holding the wormholes but she looks over to where Daphne and Keith are standing. She speaks to Daphne. “I think you were gone from the room when I learned the names of the rest of your party.” Daphne moves to stand more in front of the princess so she doesn’t have to crane her neck.

 

“Apologies Princess Allura, I am Princess Daphne of Lothirwen, a small kingdom on planet Earth.”  Daphne forgot that Keith didn’t know that.

 

“You’re a what?!” Allura and Daphne turn to look at him.

 

“Oops, sorry. I forgot you didn’t know. Shiro knew and I guess I just assumed that anything he knew about me, you would know too and it never really came up.” She swings her bag off of her shoulder and digs around until she finds what she’s looking for. Daphne pulls out a plain silver circlet, placing it across her brow and among her red-orange waves. “I was hiding my identity in the garrison for safety reasons and because I don’t really like being a princess. I’m not very good at it, I guess.” She shruggs. 

 

Allura smiles fondly. “I’m sure that’s not true.”

 

“Well, it doesn’t matter much anyway. I have an older sister, Araminta, who will take the throne and all of that. I just want to be one of her intelligence and/or war ministers. I’ll advise and she’s make the decisions.”

 

“Well, I’ll need someone advise me in the coming war. Do you have any battle analysis training?”

 

Daphne smiled. “Plenty. I would be honored, Your Highness.”

 

Allura positively beamed. “Wonderful! I notice you have a bag of your own stuff, do you have armor or a space suit with you?”

 

“I’m afraid I don’t.” Daphne gave a wiry smile. 

 

“That’s ok. I’ll tell Coran to take you to the armory and the ship can generate a suit for you.”

 

“Hey,” Keith interjected. “What about the rest of us? We don’t have space suits either.”

 

“Don’t worry, as paladins of Voltron you’ll get armor.” Keith nodded

 

-

 

A little while later, after Coran had dropped Keith and Daphne off in the armory, Keith asked the question Daphne had known was coming.

 

“What was that earlier? You looked like you were going to be sick.”

 

Daphne looked over at him from where she had been designing her suit. “I just felt too much at once. Allura’s powers and a dark energy responding to her. Also there is a strong power source on this ship that’s messing with me.” Keith looks at her in concern. Daphne goes back to designing the suit colors. “Whatever that power is, it’s amplifying my senses. I can feel more and farther than ever before. It’s making me dizzy. I feel like the world is moving beneath my feet. Also there is something dark, almost evil about this area of the universe, something that responded to the Princess’s… magic… I guess. Yeah, I’m like 90% sure she’s magic.” Daphne thinks for a second. "Do you think I'm magic?" She asks without an particular inclinations. 

 

Keith makes a noncommittal hum but says nothing further. As soon as Daphne finishes designing the last bits of the suit she moves to the wall next to Keith to wait for the castle to generate it. They stand there in silence for a few minutes. Daphne’s eyes begin to close.

 

“It’s ok, Daph, take a quick nap. You need it.”

 

“Are you sure?”

 

“Yeah, you haven't slept in two days, right?” Daphne nods and slides down the wall to the floor.

 

“I guess I haven't, I didn't really think about that." She pauses. "Will you sit with me?” Keith doesn’t say anything but moves to sit next to her. “Promise me you’ll wake me up if anything happens.”

 

“I promise. Now sleep.” Daphne doesn’t need to be told twice. She leans her head against Keith’s shoulder and is out in seconds.

 

Keith doesn’t acknowledge the contact, look at her or pull away, he just lets it happen. He whispers “Thank you for keeping your promise.” Because he isn’t looking at her, he misses the slight smile that crosses her face at his words.  

 

Keith lets her sleep right where she is and waits for something to happen.

 

-

 

He doesn’t have to wait long. A little under an hour later, Princess Allura calls them over the castle’s communication system, Shiro and Pidge are on their way back with the green lion and she’s found the red one. Keith briefly debates whether or not to wake Daphne but he know that if he doesn’t she will never trust him with her naps again. Keith gently shakes her.

 

“Daph, it’s time to wake up. Allura just said that Shiro and Pidge are coming back. Also she’s found the red lion, it might be time for us to go get it.” Daphne slowly sits up rubbing her eyes and yawning.

 

“Mmhmm, I’m up.” Her speech slightly slurred with sleep. “Field trip time, ‘es go.” She blinks and looks around. “Suit done?”

 

“No, it doesn’t look like it.” Keith stands up and offers a hand to Daphne. “We can come back and grab it later.” She accepts the offered hand and Keith pulls her to stand.

 

“M’kay I’m ready. Lets go.” She yawns one more time.

 

They head out of the room, back towards the bridge. They make it there just before Shiro and Pidge. The Princess is making a call to Lance who doesn’t seem to be in the best situation but Hunk got the lion. The princess is looking a bit worse for wear.

 

“Paladins, please hurry back. I can't hold the wormhole much longer.”

 

-

 

It’s not much longer before everyone is gathered on the bridge, taking a moment to greet one another. Shiro steers them back to business.

 

“Did we find the Red Lion yet?” Coran steps forward to answer his question.

 

“Allura just located it. There's a bit of good news and bad news. The good news is, the Red Lion's nearby. The bad news is, it's on board that Galra ship now orbiting Arus. But wait, good news again. We're Arus!” Daphne decides that’s not the case.

 

“Coran, that does not qualify as good news.”

 

Shiro isn’t thrilled either, in fact he looks downright scared. “They're here already?

 

“Yes. Guess my calculations were a bit off. Finger counting-- It's more of an art than a science.” Just then a large screen behind Princess Allura flickers on and a large purple alien appears in front of them.

 

“Princess Allura, this is Commander Sendak of the Galra Empire. I come on behalf of Emperor Zarkon, Lord of the Known Universe. I am here to confiscate the lions. Turn them over to me, or I will destroy your planet.” And the screen winks out of view again.

 

“All right.” Shiro steps up immediately. “Let's not panic." Hunk has other ideas.

 

“Not panic? The scary purple alien thing is driving his battleship toward us. We only have four lions.”

 

Daphne recognizes that panic fueled word vomit is about to occur and turns her attention inward, or is it outward? She tries to focus and find anything she can use. It isn’t long before she’s distracted, however.

 

“Wait!” The princess’s voice catches Daphne’s attention. “This castle has a particle barrier we can activate.”

 

“Girl, you've already activated my par-”

 

“Lance!” Shiro cut's him off.

 

“The particle barrier won't hold Sendak's ion cannon forever.” Coran just had to pipe up and squash the dream. “The Galra technology must have advanced since we fought them last.”

 

“Panic now?” Hunk needs to stop panicking, like, now.

 

“No. We've just got to figure out our plan of action, and figure it out quickly.” And that is the last rational thought for the next minute or so. The former garrison cadets actually start to yell at one another! Daphne is at a lose for what to do, thankfully Shiro isn’t.

 

“Guys, stop! Princess Allura, these are your lions. You've dealt with the Galra Empire before. You know what we're facing better than any of us. What do you think is the best course of action?”

 

“I- I don't know.” She seems so lost.

 

“Perhaps your father can help.”

 

“My father?”

 

Coran leads Allura from the bridge. Allura waves Daphne to follow. The three of them walk down a couple of halls until Coran stops at a door. It opens.

 

“Coran, what is this?” Allura steps into the room, Coran follows. Daphne remains in the doorway, unsure about intruding into whatever this was about to be.

 

“King Alfor knew there was a chance he might never see you again. So, his memories, his very being, were stored in this computer for you.” Allura approaches the center of the room where a strange module is located. As she reaches to touch it, light bursts forth and a lush green and pink landscape rushes forth.

 

“Father! Father, it is so good to see you.” At this Coran exits the room and comes to stand by Daphne. The door to the room closes on Allura and a hologram of her father.

 

“I must return to the bridge make as many last minute repairs to the castle as possible. Will you stay here and wait for her?”

 

“I will. Go, do what you can. It will come down to a fight and we need to be ready.” Coran gave her another quick confused look but hurried off to his work. Daphne settled herself against the wall to wait for the princess.

 

After a couple of minutes Allura emerged from the room. A look of determination on her face. “Come. There is much to do and neither of as is properly dressed.”

 

Daphne grinned. “Yes, ma’am.”

 

They hurried off. First to pick up Daphne’s finished space suit armor thing and then to Allura’s room so they could both change.

 

Allura looked over at Daphne in her suit. "It looks good on you. The colors suit you. I wish I had weapons to give you."

"Thank you, they are my favorite colors. And don't worry about weapons, I brought several of my own." Allura nods. 

 

Once changed, the girls hurried to the bridge to deliver Allura’s decision. The door opens and Allura wastes no time making her decision known to the group.

 

“You five paladins were brought here for a reason. The Voltron Lions are meant to be piloted by you and you alone. We must fight and keep fighting until we defeat Zarkon. It is our destiny. Voltron is the universe's only hope. We are the universe's only hope.”

 

Shiro spoke for them all in that moment. “We're with you, Princess.”

 

She leads them to another room, off the bridge. After all, Daphne and Allura couldn’t be the only ones with armor if they were going to fight a war, armor and weapons. While Allura presented the new paladins with their armor and bayards, Daphne began to take her knives and sheaths out of her bag and attach them to her suit. She had too many knives to wear all at once practically, but she could still wear and conceal an impressive number on her person. Daphne had to admit that their bayard were pretty cool but she wouldn’t trade her knives for anything.

 

Once everyone had suited up and was ready to go, they returned to the bridge to plan their next move. Allura began the briefing.

 

“You'll need to retrieve the Red Lion from Sendak's ship.”

 

Keith had some concerns. “That's a pretty big ship. How are we gonna know where the Red Lion is?”

 

“It's not a matter of ‘we’.” Pidge interjects. “It's a matter of ‘you’.” Hunk confirms.

 

"Pidge is right. Once we get you in, you'll be able to feel its presence and track it down.” Lance hops in the conversation.

 

“Yeah. You know how you felt that crazy energy while we were in the desert?”

 

“Yeah. You made fun of me for that.”

 

“And I'm proud of that, but turns out it's exactly like that mumbo-jumbo.”

 

Allura cuts back in before that conversation can get too out of control. “Keith, remember, the Red Lion is extremely temperamental. You'll have to earn its respect.” From there, Shiro takes over once more.

 

“All right. Here's our plan of attack. The Galra Empire knows about the Blue and Yellow Lion, but they don't know we have the Green Lion, too. Hunk, Lance, you'll act as a decoy by pretending to give yourselves up. While Sendak is distracted, Keith, Pidge, Daphne and I will sneak onto the ship in the Green Lion. Keith and I will find the Red Lion while Pidge and Daphne guard our exit. Hunk, Lance, you’ll need to find some way to take down that ion cannon.”

 

Shiro finishes going over the plan and everyone gets to their assigned launch points. The green lion and company launch first, needing the extra time to go around the planet, out of the galra’s sight. Once the green lion is in position of the far side of the planet, Lance and Hunk launch. The green lion successfully makes it to the entry point while the other two distract. Pidge cuts a hole in the ship and Lance comes in to everyone over the comms.

 

“ **Pidge, what’s your ETA?** ”

 

“We’re in.”

 

Daphne is monitoring the groups general communications when she hears Hunk come in.

 

“ **What's that thing?** ” Lance answers.

 

“ **I think that's our signal to get out of here!** ”

 

“Guys.” Daphne says to her party. “Something just went wrong with Lance and Hunk. Distraction over, we need to get a move on.” Shiro and Keith nod in response. Daphne is listening to the battle plan Lance comes up with when she hears Shiro grunt and his breathing becomes labored.

 

“I've been here before.” Keith, Pidge, and Daphne gather around Shiro as he continues. “After I was taken by the Galra cruiser off Kerberos, they brought us here.”

 

“So, that means your other crew members, they might be held captive here.” Pidge sounds hopeful and Daphne knows what he’s thinking. “We- We've got to rescue them.”

 

“Pidge, we don't have time.” Daphne knows how much that statement hurts Shiro to say. “We have to get the Red Lion and get back to Arus.” She also know that Pidge won’t understand.

 

“But we can't just leave prisoners here!”

 

“Look, no one understands that more than me, but, in war, we have to make hard choices. Now, let's get moving.”

 

Daphne is about to suggest splitting up when Pidge yells. “No! Commander Holt is my father.

 

He and my brother were the ones on the Kerberos Mission with you.”

 

“Commander Holt is your father?” Daphne sees the recognition and surprise on Shiro’s face.

 

“Yes. I've been searching everywhere for him and my brother. And I'm not going to give up looking when I'm this close. I won't!” Daphne looks to Shiro for guidance. This was not part of the plan. He makes his decision.

 

“I'm coming with you.”

 

“What?” Keith asks. Daphne echoes the sentiment.

 

“What?”

 

“I remember where the prisoners are held.” Shiro turns to Keith. “Keith, you go find the Red Lion”.

 

“By myself?” Daphne isn’t about to let Keith go alone, not after all the times she promised Shiro that she would stay with him. But Shiro keeps talking.

 

“Minor change of plans. You'll be fine. Just remember, patience yields focus.” Daphne interrupts before he can continue.

 

“I’m coming with you, Keith. You won’t be alone.” And before anyone could protest about the additional change in plans some doors opened in another hall.

 

“Run!” Shiro says before he and Pidge split off the in the opposite direction from Keith and Daphne. They’re running. Keith leading the way, Daphne following, checking over her shoulder as often as she can while still keeping up with Keith. He can run pretty fast when he needs to. They come to a fork in the hallways.

 

“Great. Now, which way?” He isn’t talking to her and she knows it. She keeps quiet, guarding his back. Footsteps are approaching from one of the halls. He starts running the opposite direction. As they are running she picks up talking coming from Hunk.

 

“ **What the quiznak? What is that? A force field?** ” That doesn’t sound good. And their situation here doesn’t look good. Daphne’s tried not to distract Keith thus far but now he seems to be running down halls erratically, She’s pretty sure they’ve gone in a circle when Keith groans in frustration.

 

“You've got to be kidding me!” Daphne makes the decision to grab his shoulder and move quickly into his line of sight. She doesn’t say anything, just levels him with a look, forcing him to stop and look at her. They are both breathing hard, they are on a hostile alien ship and they cannot afford to loose focus. Her gaze says as much to him.

 

“Patience yields focus.” He says a closes his eyes. Daphne removes her hand from his shoulder. She recognizes those words. Shiro had taught both of them and it had become a mantra for Keith, especially in the days after Shiro disappeared. ”Gotcha.” Keith turned and ran the way they had come, Daphne followed close behind. She took a moment of her own focus to be proud of Keith and of all the growth he had accomplished, especially in the last few months they had been separated.

 

She shook that moments off, however, as soon as another feeling made itself known. A premonition now was not ideal, they could be incredibly distracting. She kept running, trying to keep focus on Keith and keeping up with him while simultaneously trying to parse out what the universe wanted to tell him. She heard Pidge and Shiro over the comms but since she couldn’t do anything to help them no matter what their situation may be and they weren't actually trying to reach her, she decided to push them to the side in favor of the two pressing tasks.

 

After some time of Shiro and Pidge talking and of her and Keith running, Daphne heard Lance and Hunk come over the comms but they sounded fine so again she ignored them. She turns the volume on her general com monitor down. She was so distracted, however, that she didn’t even notice the giant red lion encased in a red force field until Keith spoke.

 

“Bingo.”

 

Daphne was in awe. This was only the second lion she had seen up close, it was smaller than the blue lion, but she could feels it's incredible energy. It was more volatile than the blue lion, more like Keith.

 

“Let's get out of here. Open up.” Keith said and when nothing happened he frowned. “It's me. Keith. Your buddy.”

 

Oh this didn’t look good. Daphne took up a defensive position not far from the door they had come in, it was the biggest after all. Daphne now knew what was coming, a fight. Keith was going to have to prove himself and it was going to be dangerous. She decided to activate the lower face plate of her helmet sealing it for use space, just as a precaution. Keith continued trying to talk to it.

 

“It's me! Keith, your-- I am your paladin!” Just then the doors to the hanger opened and three robotic soldiers started firing.

 

Daphne has the belated realization that it may not have been her best idea to bring knives to a gunfight. Oh well, they would have to do. The Robots hadn’t noticed her from her position next to the door, they were entirely focused on Keith. She used this to her advantage, attacking the nearest one from behind. But these weren’t alive so they didn’t necessarily react to being stabbed quite like she would have liked. She was going to have to rip it to pieces then. She dropped her energy shield in favor of a two handed attack. She could hear Keith still trying to bond with his lion.

 

“I'm bonding with you! Hey! Come on! We're connected!” He changes his approach and decides to join the fight. “You're not getting this lion!” He roared as he attacked the other two things. He cuts one down but other takes its place. Other than the one Daphne is actively attacking, they ignore her completely. Another one joins the fight, now there are three on Keith.

 

“Hey!” She calls. “Over here, scrap for brains!” It’s no use, they have Keith on the ground. He sits up as they approach, notices the panel to his left, activates his face plate, and slams his fist down on the controls blowing Daphne and their attackers out into space. “Keith!” She calls out. He’s holding on to the panel but then debris knocks him loose. He’s spinning and panting but just then the red lion comes and scoops him into her mouth. None to gently by the sound of it.

 

“Good kitty.” He states and flies the lion around to come pick up Daphne. “Let's roll.” Daphne comes into the cockpit to stand at his side. Like the blue lion, there are no passenger seats in the red lion so so ops to stand a bit behind him and hold on tight to the seat. She turns the general com back up to monitor the situation once more. She hears the end of a conversation between Shiro and Pidge before Hunk comes in loud and annoyed.

 

“ **Come on, just break, you stupid thing!** ” The ship shutters a bit. “ **Score one for Hunk!** ” And then the green and red lions are soaring past the ship. Daphne notices the appreciable dent Hunk has made in the ion cannon. “ **You guys made it!** ”

 

“ **Kitty Rose has left the stage!** ” Pidge confirms.

 

“ **Let's get the heck out of here!** ” Lance says.

 

“ **I hope I stopped that cannon. I could barely make a dent in it.** ” Daphne really wished Hunk hadn’t said that.

 

-

 

Back in the castle all of the recovered lions are assembled in front of the black lion’s hanger, Shiro stands just in front of it. One by one the lions turn on, sending their signals to the castle. Daphne is watching from the bridge with Allura and Coran. The hanger opens revealing the black lion. It roars and the other lions stand and return the salute. Just then the castle alarms start blaring. Daphne doesn’t understand the words on the screen but Coran does.

 

“Oh, quiznak!” The princess steps forward to take change.

 

“Sendak is entering the Arusian atmosphere. We need Voltron now!” The lions exit the castle and take up a position in front of it. Daphne moves to one of the castle command stations. At her touch it lights up showing screens to monitor the paladins vitals, those of their lion, communications, and visuals of the battle itself for tactical analysis. Everything she could have asked for.

 

Fighters have encircled the castle, firing from every direction. Suddenly they are hit with an enormous blast. It seems Hunk didn’t do as much damage as it looked like.

 

“ **Man, those Galra guys repair things fast.** ”

 

“The barrier gets weaker with every blast.” Coran supplies. “Once that shield goes down, the castle will be defenseless.”

 

Daphne checks her screens, they move and respond to her touch almost intuitively. It’s amazing! “Princess, the paladins and the lions were unharmed by the blast. They remain inside the castle’s protective barrier.” Lance jumps in.

 

“ **Unharmed! Speak for yourself, that was not a nice experience.** ” Daphne and everybody else ignore him.

 

“I can give you cover with the castle defenses for a while,” the princess begins. “But you have to form Voltron now or we'll all be destroyed!” After another blast racks the castle Shiro takes over directing the team.

 

“ **Listen up, Team Voltron! The only way to succeed is to give it all you've got! This looks bad, but we can do this! Are you with me?** ” It’s a beautiful moment before Hunk asks.

 

“ **I'm nodding. Is everyone else nodding?** ” They all respond in the affirmative.

 

“ **Let's do this!** ” Shiro directs, leading the team out of the protective barrier of the castle. They start asking question, coming up with ideas of how to do it. Nobody knows, it's a mess. They are running and fighting. Daphne is watching and analyzing, all she can do in this situation. Every time she identifies a pattern or vital piece of information, she sends it off to the lions, trying to be helpful from where she stands safe inside the castle.

 

“Quickly, Paladins! Our energy levels are getting low!” The princess tells them. Shiro has one more idea.

 

“ **Maybe if we fly in formation, we'll just combine. Take off on my cue. One, two, three, Voltron!** ” they fly in formation for a moment, two, “ **Nothing's happening.** ” Then Daphne sees the horrible moment it happens, they don’t seem to realize it for a moment. In fact, Lance seems to think it’s working at first.

 

“ **Hey, wait, wait, wait! I feel something!** ” So does Hunk.

 

“ **I do, too. I feel it. It's like we're all being pulled in the same direction!** ” Daphne is about to interject when Shiro beats her to it.

 

“ **Uh, guys, I think I know why. Look up.** ” They are stuck in a tractor beam.

 

Daphne is trying to model the situation that gets them out of that beam but nothing is working. She’s got nothing, they just don’t have enough power on their own. But maybe Voltron does. She quickly searches the castle data banks for stats on Voltron. Bingo! She sets the new information into the simulation. There it is, if they could get their lion to connect to with the intention of forming Voltron, there would be a power surge that should allow them to escape...maybe. The galra ship fires again on the castle, this time destroying the particle barrier. The castle is exposed now. This really isn’t looking good. Shiro is silent, Hunk is panicking, the rest are saying their goodbyes. The princess looks hopelessly to the screen where they can see the lions caught in the beam. There is nothing for just a moment. Then Daphne speaks.

 

“You need to form Voltron, that's the only way to get out of that beam. I know you can do it. If you don’t, this will all be over now and Zarkon will win, the universe will have no hope!” Shiro latches on to her words and uses them to rally the team.

 

“ **No! We can do this. We have to believe in ourselves. We can't give up. We are the universe's only hope. Everyone is relying on us. We can't fail! We won't fail! If we work together, we'll win together!** ”

 

“ **Yeah!** ” They rally a battle cry to Shiro’s words. Daphne sees on her screen the moment it works, the moment the power surges and they break free of the beam!

 

The Galra ship goes to fire on the castle again, this time the blast will take them out. She should be terrified but she knows, she can feel their survival of this moment. She knows it so well that she doesn’t even blink when the galra ship fires and just misses the castle. Voltron emerges on the screen having redirected the canon. The princess and Coran gasp in shock. The paladin can’t seem to believe it either. They are shouting their disbelief over the comms.

 

“ **I can't believe it!** ”

“ **We formed Voltron!** ”

“ **I'm a leg!** ”

“ **How are we doing this?** ”

 

Shiro brings them to focus once more. “ **I don't know, but let's get that cannon!** ”

 

Daphne watches in awe, screens forgotten, as Voltron just rips the cannon right off the ship and throws it to the ground. Keith lion punches strait through the hull and fires its lasers, blowing up a large section of the ship. Voltron kicks its was though in another location, more lasers firing. They are tearing the ship to shreds! They are all yelling as they fly straight though the ship! A final blow.

 

-

 

Daphne, Allura, and Coran run out to meet the paladins on the steps of the castle. The princess is the first to speak.

 

“Good work, Paladins!”

 

Shiro steps forward. “We did it.”

 

Keith pulls off his helmet and answers Shiro with a smile. “Heck yeah, we did.”

 

“How did we do it?” Hunk joins in answer to him.

 

“I was just, like, screaming the whole time. Maybe that did it.” Daphne laughs a little at that. Pidge takes off his helmet and looks down at the ground. Shiro places a hand on his shoulder.

 

“We're not going to stop searching until we find your brother and father. Wherever they are, I know they'd be proud of you.” Pidge gives him a small, sad, smile in thanks. Then the princess is speaking again.

 

“We won the battle, but the war has only just begun. I'm afraid Zarkon will not stop until he gets these lions.” Then Coran has to go and add his two cents.

 

“Good thing you paladins know what you're doing, because you're going to have to form Voltron again and again.”

 

“Totally.” Hunk says. Then the realization of what Coran just said hits him. Lance has the same realization.

 

“Wait, what? We barely survived forming Voltron this one time.”

 

Then Coran just has to keep going. “And you only had to fight one ship. Wait until you have to fight a whole fleet of them! It's not going to be easy being the Defenders of the Universe.” That last statement is met with a lot of wide eyes and raised eyebrows. Then Shiro smiles.

 

“Defenders of the Universe, huh? That's got a nice ring to it.”

 

Daphne smiles, she’s proud of her boys. Defenders of the Universe indeed. There was a long road ahead of them, this she knew, but they would meet every challenge head on and wouldn’t stop until good had triumphed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took way too long. I kept getting frustrated at the length of episode one and how long it was taking. I'll go back and edit later, I just want to post this now. Also I've been super sick and working long hours. But anyway, here you go. Please leave Kudos or comments if you like it or just have any comments/complaints/debates/observations etc. I low-key need validation lol.  
> In other news, I'll be doing mini fics to be companions to this story! They will be posted separately. I haven't quite figured out how I will do it yet but I have one of them almost written and ideas for five more.  
> Also I just realized its the one month anniversary of this fic!!!! I'm so proud of myself!


	12. S1e2 Some Assembly Required

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's the second day of the their lives in the alien castle and the Paladins need to learn how to form Voltron. Can they do it? Daphne, on the other hand, really needs to learn how to sleep. Can she do it? And what of Princess Allura and Coran? What do they need to learn and can they learn it? It's going to be one eventful day at the Castle of Lions.

It was the middle of the night and Daphne was having trouble sleeping...again. At least she thought it was the middle of the night,she couldn’t even read the clocks around here. Earlier she had gone looking for her sleep medication and discovered that not only had she left those behind, but her antidepressants as well. She had been on those long enough that coming off abruptly was not going to pleasant. After a few more minutes of tossing and turning, Daphne gave up on sleeping for the time being. She looked around the dimly lit room for the robe Allura had given her, locating it at the foot of the bed.

 

When Daphne had left Earth she hadn’t made sure to pack PJ’s so Allura had lent her a nightgown and robe. Daphne hated wearing dresses but even she had to admit that the nightgown was comfortable. She slid the robe over her shoulders as she left her room, walking with no particular destination in mind. Allura had given her a nicer room in a wing of the palace reserved for visiting royalty which Allura had reasoned Daphne was and Daphne was grateful for the spacious and comfortable quarters but they were quite isolated. At least this meant that her late night wanderings wouldn’t bother anyone else. Just in case, though, she wore no shoes, walking barefoot on the cool mental floors. As she walked, she thought of Earth. What panic had she caused by disappearing? What about Shiro’s sudden appearance and equally sudden disappearance? She laughed out loud at the thought of how much trouble they had caused Iverson. The sound echoed in the otherwise empty hall, the noise causing Daphne to startle and listen as the sound distorted and faded into silence. In that silence she heard a noise coming from behind one of the doors down the hall. It sounded like grunting, like someone struggling.

 

She snapped out of her thoughts and froze, assessing the situation. She wasn’t unarmed, she never was, but it was only a small dagger against the unknown. It took another moment for her extremely sleep deprived brain to catch up with her surroundings. She was in the hall that housed the paladin’s rooms but who was making that noise? She crept down the hall towards the door muffling the sounds. They were getting louder now, grunts turned to suppressed screams causing Daphne to surge towards the door at the end of the hall. From directly outside the door she could identify the voice. She had to get in right away, luckily it opened at her touch.

 

“Shiro! Shiro!” She ran to the distressed sleeping man and tried to wake him. “Shiro please wake up!” He remained lost to the nightmare. Daphne wasn’t sure what to do but she knew she couldn’t leave him trapped in whatever hellscape his mind had conjured. She climbed into his bed and on top of him to stop his frantic movements, she grabbed his shoulders and shook them, trying one more time to wake him. “Shiro! Wake up, it isn’t real! You’re safe.” He opened his eyes but he couldn’t see her, he only saw his enemy. Suddenly Daphne realized her mistake, Shiro could seriously hurt her in this state. “Shiro, please. It’s me.” She begged, but he wasn’t listening, he was still lost in his dream.

 

He grabbed one of her wrists with his alien hand, using it to wrench her off of him and halfway across the room. She landed with a thud and whimpered. He came and stood over her for a moment poised to attack but when she whimpered again, clutching her injured wrist to her chest, his eyes unfocused and became softer. She froze and after another moment “Shiro…?” She asked softly. His eyes slowly came into focus, taking in his surroundings, taking in her position on the floor of his room. He saw tears unshed in the corners of her eyes, the way her wrist was being carefully protected, and lastly the look of barely concealed terror on her face. In an instant Shiro realized that he was the cause and crumpled to his knees in front of her.

 

“Daphne…” He started slowly, wrecked.

 

She forced her fear down, this was someone she loved not someone who would hurt her on purpose. She moved forward on her knees, careful of her wrist, to meet him on the floor. “Shhhh. It’s ok now. You’re safe here. I’ve got you.” Shiro was shaking. She reached forward to hug him, trying her best to envelope his vastly larger frame into her slender one, trying to protect him from the outside world. He exhaled a little at the contact. “Shiro, are you alright? Do you want to talk about it?”

 

Shiro took a moment before responding. “I’m fine.” he began to remove himself from her grip, she let him. “It was just a nightmare, nothing to talk about.” He finished pulling back and looked at her. By this point Daphne’s tears had disappeared and she had wiped the terror from her face. There was nothing but love and caring for him to find in her eyes. He scrutinized her expression, looking for what he knew he saw on her face just moments before, looking for evidence that he was a monster. He found nothing.

 

“If you don’t want to talk, that’s fine. I won’t make you. Just know I’m always here in case you change your mind.” Shiro nodded.

 

“Thank you Daphne.” He stood an offered her his hand, intending to pull her to her feet as well. She pretend not to notice so she doesn’t have to offer him her injured wrist. She stands on her own. He was putting on his brave leader face for her or possibly for himself, she wouldn’t take that away from him, but she was going to take care of him anyway.

 

“Let’s get you back to bed then.”

 

He looks at her confused. “What about you?” She smiles at him.

 

“I couldn’t sleep anyway, that's how I ended up here. If you want, I’ll stay here with you tonight.”

 

“You don’t have to do that. You need rest as well. You should go back to your own bed and get some sleep. Keith told me that you haven’t slept in two days except for naps.” He frowns at the statement.

 

“That’s true but I won’t sleep either way. If I leave you here, I’ll just end up wandering the castle until dawn.”

 

“Daphne.” He sounded exasperated. She took his human hand with her uninjured one and lead him back to his bed and encouraged him to sit. She could tell that as much as he didn’t want to return to sleep, he was half way there. She continued to gently guide him onto the bed. “Will you really not sleep at all tonight?” He pressed.

 

Daphne shrugs and gently encouraged him to lay down “Probably not. Really it's no big deal for me to stay here while you sleep.” Taking off her robe she settle herself on his bed so she was sitting up against the head and her legs stretched halfway down the bed pressed up against his human arm. “I’ll keep watch so you can sleep soundly.”

 

He exhales and visibly relaxes as his eyes flutter closed. “Thank you Daphne.”

 

“You’re welcome. Now, sleep well.” Shiro finally allows himself to drift off again.

 

Daphne watches his sleeping face for a moment, it’s much more peaceful than before. A moment later a deep pain in her wrist makes itself known. She makes to inspect it. Daphne doesn’t think it's broken but large, finger-shaped marks are sure to turn into nasty bruises by the morning. She sighs and turns back to Shiro’s sleeping face to provide distraction from the pain. It isn’t long before the rhythmic sound of his breathing begins to lull her to sleep. She decides not to fight it knowing that Shiro would prefer her to sleep than to keep watch. In moments she deep asleep sitting straight up in his bed and that’s how Shiro finds her when he wakes in the morning.

 

-

 

Shiro wakes early to find Daphne sleeping sitting up in his bed. He debates trying to move her to a more comfortable position but decides against it reasoning that any movement will probably wake the girl. He looks her over, trying to asses the situation and his ability to get out of the bed without waking her. He decides that it’s doable if he’s careful and goes to give it a try. Of course in trying to get out at the foot of the bed past where her feet were, he elbowed her foot. She woke with a start.

 

“I’m so sorry Daphne.” He said, climbing out of the bed as quickly as possible, a blush coloring his cheeks. It took Daphne a moment to understand what she was seeing but once she did, she blushed too, she had slept in Shiro’s bed.

 

“It’s ok. Sorry I fell asleep in your bed.” She looked up at him from the position he had adopted next to the bed.

 

“Don’t worry about it. I - I actually slept better with you here.” He looked a bit to the side, blush deepening.

 

“I’m glad I could help you get some rest.” Daphne began to swing her legs off the bed to stand.

 

“You can go back to sleep if you want, I don’t mind. I think it’s still early and I was just going to work out a bit.”

 

“Thanks but I don’t think I’ll be able to sleep anymore now that I’m up.” She stood. They ended up just inches away from each other. They stood there for a second, just looking at one another. Daphne was eye level with his chest and that thought wasn’t distracting at all. Another few seconds and Shiro cleared his throat looking away.

 

“I should go get changed...um.” He took a step back.

 

“Yeah.” Daphne grabbed her robe and slipped it over her shoulders once more. “I’ll just head back to my room and leave you to your workout.” She quickly made her way out of Shiro’s room and down the hall before Shiro could say anything in response. Oh her way back, she ran into Allura already dressed and walking purposefully towards something.

 

“Good morning, Your Highness.” Allura stopped short, a look of confusion on her face.

 

“What is my ‘highness’?” She asked.

 

It took Daphne a second and then she laughed a little. “It’s ‘Your Highness’ and it’s the appropriate way to address royalty where I’m from.” Allura considered this for a moment before responding.

 

“On Altea we use a person’s title so for me that would be ‘Princess’ but I see no need for titles especially between us princesses. What do you think?”

 

“I like that idea.” Daphne smiled, happy to be making friends with the princess already. “You can call me Daphne or Daph, whatever works for you.” Just then a thought occurred to her. “Where are you headed so early?

 

“Is it particularly early for humans? I was headed to the bridge, the castle needs quite a bit of work before we can leave this planet. It has been sitting here for 10,000 years.” She gets a soft sad look at the end of her statement. “Why are you awake if it so early? And why are you walking around in a nightdress?” Daphne laughs a bit once more.

 

“Some humans like to be up early but most don’t like to be awake until well after dawn. I’m up because I had trouble sleeping last night and went walking to try and settle down.” She then changes the subject, avoiding answering the rest of Allura’s question. “Do you need help on the bridge? I can get dressed and meet you there in a few minutes.”

 

“Yes, your help would be much appreciated!”

 

“Ok, I’ll be right there.” Daphne and Allura part ways in the hall. Daphne returns to her room to change into her suit then join Allura on the bridge.

 

-

 

Allura started the alarms while Daphne watched with mild fascination. Would the former garrison cadets be able to make it to muster? She knew Shiro was awake and ready to go, but what about everybody else. Allura had needed to check the alarms systems so she decided to check the paladins as well.

 

“Everybody up! Zarkon's attacking! The Castle's about to be destroyed! Go, go, go! We need Voltron now! Hurry! We can't survive much longer!” In Daphne’s opinion, Allura was laying it on a bit thick but Coran had other ideas.

 

“You've got to sell it a little bit more. Oh, no! Allura is dead! Aw, it's horrible! Her head fell off!" Wait! What? Daphne and Allura looked on in horror. Daphne was starting to realize that Coran was most likely insane. “Her severed head is trying to speak to me! What is it, Allura's head? What are your final words?” Sometime during Coran’s over dramatization, most of the paladins had arrived. Allura tried to get him to stop.

 

“Coran.” But he just kept going, thinking she was playing along.

 

“Oh, yes, Princess, I'm listening.” She tried to tell him again.

 

“It's over.” Daphne was shaking her head.

 

“Oh, I know! If only Voltron had been formed.” He turned and finally noticed the four people standing near the door. “Oh! Time!”

 

Shiro was the first one to speak. “I guess this isn't an actual attack.”

 

“And it's a good thing it wasn't because it took you…” The princess turned to Coran. “Coran?”

 

“Seventy-five degrees.” Daphne and Allura looked over in confusion. “Oh, sorry. No, this is a meat thermometer.” The princess was not amused.

 

“However long it was, it was too long. You must always be ready to do battle with Zarkon.” She approached the paladins, none of which looked particularly happy with her or Coran. “Look at you! Only Shiro is in uniform. Keith, Pidge, Hunk, where are your bayards? And where is Lance?” And at that moment Lance walked in, face shining.

 

“Good morning, everybody. What's going on?” The princess was pissed.

 

“Coran and I have been up for hours getting the Castle back in order. We had to run a test on the alarms, and we decided to test you as well. Guess which one failed.” Daphne thought she was maybe being a bit harsh. But on the other hand if they were going to fight in an intergalactic war, they were going to need to be better than that. Hunk seemed to be thinking more along the lines of Daphne’s first thought.

 

“Hey! You got to sleep for 10,000 years, man. Monday night, I was on Earth. Now, I've flown through space, fought some evil alien named Zarkon, eaten goo in some weird castle.

 

That's a lot to process in, uh… I don't know. What day is today?” Hunk had a point as well.

 

“It's the third quintant of the Spicolian movement. Hump day!” Coran oh so very helpfully supplied.

 

Daphne took pity on Hunk. “It’s Wednesday, or it would be if we were on Earth. I can’t account for any time dilation that wormholing may have caused.”

 

“It's a lot to process.”

 

“You must understand the stakes of our mission. Over the last 10,000 years, the Castle picked up distress beacons from the following locations.” She pulled up the star charts again, this time a majority of it turned red. “So, we have to assume that Zarkon has conquered almost the entire known universe.” She spun the map. “Earth is here. An attack on your planet is inevitable.” Daphne looked at Shiro, he had no reaction to the news. He looked dead behind the eyes.

 

“Oh, no.” Hunk said.

 

“Exactly.” The princess continued. “Our mission is to free all those planets. Coran and I are getting the Castle ready to leave Arus. During that time, you have to learn to form Voltron, so we can begin fighting Zarkon.” Shiro finally spoke.

 

“The Princess is right. Let's get to our lions and start training.” This time it was Pidge who objected.

 

“Wait. But I want to talk to the prisoners we rescued from the Galra ship.”

 

“Uh, negative, Number Five. I have you ranked by height, okay?” Daphne full on face-palms at that. Everyone else just kinda looks on with disbelief. “The prisoners need to remain in the cryo-replenishers until tomorrow.”

 

“That's right.” The princess jumps in. “Now, get to your lions.” Everyone going to their stations to head to the lion. Daphne and Allura just stand there for a moment, waiting. Eventually, at it takes far to long, everybody is in a lion and ready to go. Allura makes to contact the lions.

 

“Feel the bond with your lions and your fellow pilots until five become one unit and you form Voltron!” And they are off with a shout.

 

“Alright.” Daphne starts, turning to Allura. “Should we get back to work? I still don’t understand anything about this ship but I’m another pair of hands that can do what they’re told.” Allura cracks a smile.

 

“Yes, lets.”

 

So they get back to work, mostly on the bridge for now, Coran is wherever he is on the other side of the comm. Daphne doesn’t understand what they talk about at all so she spend most of the time just holding things or pressing buttons. She is also listening to the paladins general comms. Every once in a while giving a short laugh at their antics. After one particularly hard laugh at Shiro’s utterance of “Is everyone bonding and focusing?” Allura asked her what was so amusing.

 

“Humans can be quite funny when they are frustrated.” Daphne starts to explain. But before she can get any farther Allura interrupts.

 

“The paladins are frustrated? They haven’t formed Voltron yet?”

 

“Nope.”

 

Allura, abruptly, pulled the paladins up on her screen again. “Sorry to interrupt, but I may be able to help. Yesterday, you weren't able to form Voltron until you were in the heat of battle.” She gets a variety of responses.

 

“ **Yeah.** ”

“ **I'm listening.** ”

“ **You're right.** ”

“ **Yeah, I guess.** ”

 

“Perfect.” Daphne doesn’t like where this is going. “Because I need to run a diagnostic test on all of the Castle defenses.This should help!” Daphne does not think that will help.

 

“Allura! Stop!” Daphne hopes her argument is noted by the paladins because it isn’t doing any good here. Keith tries to reason with her as well.

 

“ **Allura, what are you doing?** ”

 

“Running a diagnostic test on the Castle defenses and inspiring you! I believe in you, Paladins! Let fear be your guide! Form Voltron!” Daphne hears a lot of screaming coming from the general com. Allura seems to be enjoying herself a little too much as the paladins shout at her and she responds. She presses a button and begins to walk away, the castle responds.

 

“Auto-lock-on engaged.” Daphne doesn’t know what to do so she hurried after Allura trying to get her to change her mind. But arguing with the princess seemed to be useless.

 

“What do you think you’re doing? They could get hurt”

 

“I’m just running a diagnostic, it's not enough to hurt the paladins or the lions.” Allura continued down the hall unperturbed.

 

“I don’t know about that, its sounds pretty serious.” Daphne got out in front of Allura, forcing her to stop.

 

“Daphne, unless they do something incredibly stupid, they should be absolutely fine. It should serve as a motivation force to form Voltron.”

 

“Have you met them?”

 

Daphne takes a breath, she needs to know for sure. Heedless of Allura’s questioning gaze, she closed her eyes and focused. It could have taken moments or minutes but she wasn’t interrupted as she reached out one by one to check on the paladins. She found plenty of fear but no imminent danger for any of them. Daphne opened her eyes to meet Allura’s confused ones.

 

“What was that you were doing?”

 

“Checking on the paladins.” Daphne says, deadpan. She turns and keeps walking. “It seems that you are right, they are not in imminent danger from your training exercise so let's get back to work.”

 

Allura is not satisfied with that as an answer, she reaches to grab Daphne’s wrist. When she makes contact three things happen at once: Daphne gasps in pain, she turns and her eyes begin to glow with her first true vision of the future, and Allura sees glowing Altean marks on Daphne’s face. Allura drops Daphne’s wrist, she stands there frozen in shock. Daphne is lost in a vision of a different alien planet.

 

_Allura stands in a circle of blue light ringed by five aliens with grayish colored skin, tails, and horns. She in her full space suit, helmet included, but the aliens seem not to need such things. She’s under the castle, channeling a massive amount of energy, enough to kill her. The glow brightens and spreads and she is encased in a tunnel of light. There are sounds of a vicious battle behind Daphne but she is unable to turn and find the source. She can only see Allura. She watches as Allura falls forward thrusting her hands against the ground. A giant wave of light washes over the planet and Daphne's vision fades._

The two girls stare at each other, shocked and in silence for a moment. Daphne’s eyes have lost their glow and the marks have faded back into nothingness. It’s second before either of them speak but it feels so much longer.

 

“Coran.” Allura calls over the comms. “Meet us in the castle’s infirmary immediately.” She starts walking quickly, ushering Daphne along without touching her.

 

“ **Yes, Princess.** ” Comes his response. " **Is everything alright, Princess? Are you injured?** ” Coran sounds concerned but Allura isn’t answering him.

 

“Allura is fine, Coran. I’m not really sure what’s going on right now but neither of us are injured.”

 

" **Understood. I’ll meet you there in a few ticks.** ”

 

“Allura, what's going on? Why are we going to the infirmary? And why does Coran need to meet us there?” Daphne doesn’t actually expect an answer but she ends up getting on.

 

“You have Altean marks. How is this possible?” She manages to sound accusatory and hopeful at the same time.

 

Daphne is shocked once again. There are too many new pieces of information coming her way at once. “Altean marks? What are those? And how could I possible have them, I’m human? Both my parents are human.”

 

Neither girl has any answers. They make their way to the infirmary and to Coran who is waiting for them inside.

 

“Princess, what is it?”

 

“Princess Daphne and I had an odd encounter in the corridor. I touched her wrist and her eyes began to glow.”

 

“They did what now?” Daphne was shocked. They had never done that before, to her knowledge at least. But then again she had never actually seen the future before, assuming that _was_ the future.

 

Allura continued as if Daphne hadn’t said anything. “Then I noticed that she had glowing Altean marks on her face.”

 

“What are Altean marks?” Daphne tried again, some exasperation leaking into her voice. Fortunately Coran took pity on her.

 

“Altean marks are these things that Princess Allura and I have on our faces, but you don’t seem to have any. Hmm.” Coran started stroking his mustache. He turned and started messing with a tablet on the counter behind him.

 

“Coran, they were there. I didn’t see them appear but I saw them fade away at the same time her eyes stopped glowing. It was like she was in a trance when it happened.”

 

They weren’t talking to Daphne so she didn’t talk to them, instead she looked at her surroundings. It was a stark, mostly white room like most infirmaries she had seen in her life. This one had the blue wall lights that covered the rest of the castle and the distinctly alien architecture that was slowly becoming familiar to her. There were a few examination tables along the walls and lots of counters with tablets and instruments she didn’t recognize. Coran made a bid for her attention.

 

“Princess Daphne could you please sit up here for me? I’d like to run a DNA test and a few other scans. With your permission of course.” Daphne hopped up on the indicated bed.

 

“Of course.” Coran started scanning her with a weird boxy thing with a light coming out the top. “Coran, while you are doing that, could you take a look of this injury I got recently. I don’t think its broken but it’s been bothering me quite a bit.” She tugs on the sleeve of her suit until the large hand-shaped bruise becomes visible. Allura gasps.

 

“Where did you get that? It looks horrible!” Coran finishes up with the scan and picks up another instrument to evaluate her wrist. It’s looking even worse than it had been this morning.

 

Daphne wasn’t about to tell anyone that Shiro had done it so she lied. “I think it happened when Keith and I were fighting those robots on the Galra ship.”

 

“Ah, those sentries can be pretty nasty.” Coran supplies. The little thing dings. “Well, it looks like you’re right, it's not broken. But it is a nasty bruise. I can give you something to help it heal up quickly if you want. I would suggest putting you in a pod but they are all occupied at the moment…” He trails off.

 

“Don’t worry about it. I’m happy to treat this the old fashioned way.” He nods and gives her a small pot of not-so-great smelling salve. “Thanks Coran.”

 

“You’re welcome, Princess.”

 

“Coran, what does the DNA scan say?” Allura insists. She is desperate to know and Daphne can hear it in her voice.

 

“Princess, we won’t have the results for a varga or two.”

 

“Um, what's a varga?”

 

“A varga is 60 doboshes.” Coran not so helpfully supplies. Seeing the look of confusion on Daphne’s face he continues. “Well there are 20 vargas in a quintant which I think is comparable to one of your Earth days.”

 

“Cool, got it.” Daphne did not get it. She just wanted Coran to stop. “So we should probably get back to fixing the castle now.”

 

“Actually, Princess, if you could stay here so I could run some more test, that would be best.”

 

Daphne sighed. It’s not like she had been of much use before. “How long do you need me to stay for?”

 

Coran twitched his mustache. “A few vargas, possibly.”

 

“Ok, can I at least take a nap while you run these tests? I’ve hardly slept at all.”

 

Coran perked up a bit. “Of course! I can give you something that will help you sleep for a short period of time if you require assistance.”

 

“Yes please.” Daphne smiled. She was in dire need of some rest and it seemed like Coran may be able to help. “Can I change out of my suit first?”

 

“I don’t see why not.” Coran mused. “Once you get back I can start running some of the other scans.”

 

“OK, I’ll be back shortly.” Daphne turned and made her way out of the room and back to her own. Once there she peeled off her suit, opting instead for her comfy black leggings and teal and black turtle neck t-shirt. She ditched the circlet and threw her hair up in a sloppy ponytail. Now she was ready for a midday nap. Looking in the mirror, Daphne smiled. She looked normal and if she ignored the background she could easily imagine that she was back home with her family or back at the garrison with Keith and Shiro.

 

Daphne shook her head. There was no point in living in the past, it could do nothing for her now. So before she could get lost in thought again, she left. She headed straight back to the infirmary and to Coran with the magic sleep medicine.

 

By the time Daphne made it back to the infirmary Allura was already gone.

 

“Where’s Allura?” Coran turned to her at the sound of her voice.

 

“Ah, Princess Daphne. Princess Allura left to go check on the castle’s compressors, there is still a lot to do.”

 

“I see.” Daphne went over to the bed she had been on before. Coran came over with a few things on a tray. “What’s all of that.”

 

“This is the sleep medication and a hydration pack to wash it down.” Coran supplied cheerfully. Daphne took the offered tablet and hydration pack. She took a tentative sip, then, when it wasn’t entirely disgusting, she took the pill and washed it down with the water-like liquid. Once she had done that, Coran continued. “Then I figured I could treat your wrist while you are here before doing the other scans.”

 

“Go right ahead.” Daphne offered her wrist to the man. She allowed him to cover her wrist in the foul smelling paste then wrap it in bandages. She could feel her eyelids getting heavy as he worked, whatever he had given her was strong, she’d probably be out for the rest of the day.  

 

“Go ahead and sleep, Princess.” Coran reassures her as her eyes close against her will. “I will take care of everything and make sure no one bothers you while you sleep.”

 

“Coran, you don’t have to call me Princess. Please just call me Daphne, I would prefer it.” She’s laying back against the pillow now

 

Coran hums but doesn’t respond, or at least Daphne doesn’t catch one. She’s already drifting towards dreamland.

 

-

 

Daphne wakes up to a roar… or is it a rumble? The lights in the infirmary are dim but begin to brighten when she sits up. She hears the rumbling again, it's her stomach. “How long have I been out?” She wonders out loud to the empty room. She swings her feet over the edge of the bed and looks around. Some of the instruments and the table Coran had been using before are blinking but when Daphne reaches for them she is reminded that she cannot read Altean. Sighing, she puts them down and stands up. She leaves the infirmary in search of food.

 

As she wanders through the halls she becomes unnerved at the silence.  where was everyone? She kept wandering around until she came the dining room. The door opened and Daphne could not believe her eyes, the carnage was everywhere. They had a food fight! And without her! No fair.

 

She grabbed a plate of food goo that looked relatively untouched and settled herself at the far end of the table. It seemed relatively clean over here. As she sat there eating her goo she decided to kick her legs up on the table and get comfy. Her eyes could barely stay open while she ate. It wasn’t long before she heard a racket outside the door. She didn’t move or stop what she was doing, she was still too tired to care what they thought about her feet on the table.

 

In they burst, and burst really was the only word for it. Most of the paladins were talking quite loudly and Shiro stood over them smiling proudly, Allura and Coran brought up the rear. Even Keith was smiling. He was also the first one to notice her.

 

“Hey Daph.” She raised her spoon in greeting, too tired to actually respond.

 

“Whoa!” Lance said, eyes wide and looking around at the mess. “I can't believe we made this big of a mess.”

 

Pidge snorts. “That was one epic food fight!”

 

“The poor goo.” Hunk laments.

 

While the others were messing around, Keith came over to Daphne a look of concern on his face. When she had raised her spoon up, she had exposed her bandaged wrist. He leaned over her chair so he could whisper without being overheard.

 

“What happened here.” He gently picked up her wrist and brought it between them. He fixed her with one of his determined gazes. She didn’t want to lie to him but this was not the time or place.

 

“I’ll tell you later.” His eyes narrowed, he didn’t like that answer. Daphne was about to elaborate a bit when Shiro came up on her other side. She quickly hid her wrist. Keith raised an eyebrow. 

 

“Hey, Daphne. Where have you been all day? Were you helping fix the castle while Allura put us through our paces?” He chuckled a bit and there was a twinkle in his eye. Daphne was happy to see it.

 

“I was sleeping all day.” Both boys looked surprised at that. Daphne yawned again.

 

“You were sleeping?” Shiro clarified.

 

“Yup. Coran gave me something to help me sleep while he ran a few tests, I don’t think it was supposed to make me sleep this long though.” Daphne frowned then looked over Shiro's shoulder. Once she located Coran across the room, she shouted to him. “Coran?” He looked up. “I just woke up and am still mostly asleep. Is that normal for the stuff you gave me?”

 

Coran walked over with the princess before responding. “Well it's a little long. But I suppose the dose for humans and Alteans would be different.” Keith and Shiro glared at him. “I did make sure to check that it would be compatible with human biology before giving it to you.”

 

In response she just sort of pointed her spoon at him, nodded, and then went back to using it for eating. Shiro and Keith just looked at each other. They couldn’t believe that she would just take an alien drug without knowing what it would do to her. But then again they knew that if it promised sleep, she would take it. Shiro shook his head before speaking.

 

“And you’re still tired?” Daphne nodded, eyes falling shut despite the mouthful of food goo. “I’m not really all that surprised, you haven't gotten much sleep in the last three days."

 

“You didn’t sleep last night either?” Keith asked. He was starting to get seriously concerned. Human needed sleep or they could go insane.

 

“She got a few hours last night, I think.” Shiro supplied. Keith gave him a questioning glance but before her could press the issue, Allura jumped in.

 

“Coran, the DNA scan, it must be done by now. And the other tests?’

 

“Yes Princess. We should have all the results by now.”

 

“Why were you running tests?” Shiro asked.

 

“We’ll tell you all about it on the way to the infirmary.” Daphne supplied. She then swung her legs down from the table. “Let’s go, I want to know what they say.” She stood up and then decided to lean on Keith for support, she was really out of it. “Next time, Coran, maybe like half the dose of that medicine, okay?” Literally everyone just shook their head at her. They weren’t giving her anymore of that anytime soon.

 

The five of them make their way to the infirmary leaving behind Lance, Pidge, and Hunk who were simultaneously cleaning up the food fight and reenacting it. Princess Allura explained the oddity of this morning's events to Keith and Shiro while Daphne trailed a bit behind, holding on to Keith’s hand to keep up. Once Allura had finished explaining, Keith dropped back a bit to talk to Daphne.

 

“So what happened?”

 

“I saw the future, Keith. I _saw_ it, like actual vision. It wasn’t just a feeling this time.” Keith looked at her in amazement.

 

“What did you see?” He pressed. He didn’t sound freaked out, he sounded proud of her.

 

Daphne struggled to recall, the medication making her brain fuzzy. “I can’t really remember. I know it was about Allura and she was doing something dangerous. There was a lot of light and energy.” Daphne looked over at Keith and smirked. “Remember how I said I was like 90% sure the Princess was magic?” Keith nods. “Now I’m 100% sure, maybe even 110% sure.” Keith thinks this over for a second but before her can respond they have arrived at the infirmary. Coran is looking at the table with the results on it.

 

“Alright, Coran, tell me what you’ve found.” Keith gives her hand a reassuring squeeze. Allura’s eyes are entirely on Coran, waiting for news, but Shiro’s eyes caught the movement between Daphne and Keith. He looks at their hands for a moment then looks away, no emotions betray his face but Daphne’s heart sinks anyway. She was really caught in the middle of these two boys who she loved, but now wasn’t the time.

 

Coran started to speak. “Well Princess, I see no evidence of Altean DNA.” Daphne already suspected as much. Allura’s shoulders drop ever so slightly.

 

“It makes sense. The destruction of Altean predates Human civilization by about 4000 years.” Daphne states. “And I don’t think anyone has found evidence of an advanced alien society in our archaeological record.”

 

“Daphne is right.” Shiro supplies. “Earth has never had documented and confirmed contact with Aliens nor is there anything in the archaeological record. For her to be anything other than human, well, I would be shocked.”

 

“What about the other tests you ran? What were those even for?” Daphne asked, she kind of wished she had asked ahead of time. She started sagging against Keith even more.

 

“Well those tests seem to have come out inconclusive. I was attempting to measure your sensitivity to quintessence. Perhaps even your ability to use it.”

 

Okay, Daphne has officially reached her limit. “Let’s do a retest another day, I’m falling asleep on my feet.”

 

Keith snorts a bit. Daphne is leaning on him so much that she can feel the vibrations in her own chest. “You’re hardly on your own feet anymore, Daph. Here I’ve got you.” He sweeps her up bridal style and carries her from the infirmary before any of the others can protest. She’s a bit surprised at first that he can carry her but it's nice nonetheless.

 

Between the warm safety of Keith’s arms and the rhythmic rocking of his steps, she’s out before they even making to the main hall. Keith notices and is happy that she is sleeping even if it means he has to carry her to her room. He doesn’t mind, not after all the things she’s done for him and all the ways she took care of him before. He’s happy to return the favor.

 

Once he gets her into her own bed and pulls a blanket over her he hesitates a moment before leaving a soft kiss on her cheek. He misses her and what they had before it was so easy and full of love. Even when he was cool and distant, she understood and never pushed but was always there when he needed her, when he needed a bit of human contact. He missed her even when she was right in front of him. Abruptly he stands and marches out of the room. He knows she loves him but she also loves Shiro. She had loved Shiro before him and was probably just waiting for a chance to get with him now. After all he was pretty sure that he saw her form racing out of the hall this morning at an ungodly hour, with Shiro’s door sliding closed behind her. He shook his head. It was none of his business, he had to focus on Voltron and the war ahead. It didn’t matter anymore, he was the one to break it off with her in the first place and that was his own fault.

 

He took a deep breath to settle himself before joining the other paladins in the lounge they had claimed as their own. He took as second to remember the victory of forming Voltron. That’s what everyone else would be thinking about, he had to get in the mood. So with a smile plastered on his face he entered the lounge and joined in the celebration. Lance's voice was the first to reach his ears.

 

"Man, that was cool! I'm so charged up, I don't know if I'm going to be able to sleep tonight.”

 

“Not me. When my head hits the pillow, I'm going to be lights out.” And it was true. He was asleep just as soon as his head hit his pillow.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> He guys, sorry this chapter is...well the way it is. I wrote myself into a corner and had to backtrack like three times. I eventually had to admit defeat and have her sleep all day, this is harder then I thought it was going to be. But at least I got the whole episode in one part this time! But anyway I hope you like it please leave comments or Kudos if you do. It really helps encourage me to write more for you all. Thanx!


	13. S1e3 Return of the Gladiator

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everything is nearly ready to leave Arus, the Paladin have figured out how to form Voltron, and Daphne's finally gotten a good nights sleep! It's a good thing too because the Galra are coming for them.  
> Shiro has to remember a painful past in order to save the day. Can he do it?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The first mini-fic associated with this story is posted. I don't know how to link it but if you go to the collection thing at the top of this fic it will take you to a place that contains both!

Keith was waiting for her when she woke up. Daphne opened her eyes to see him sitting on the edge of her bed, looking away from her. She rolled over so she was facing him completely.

 

“Good morning.”

 

“Morning.” came his soft reply. Daphne was immediately on alert but she didn’t want Keith to know so she continued to play at being sleepy. She half sat up allowing her elbow to support her weight. She reached up to run her free hand through his hair. It was so soft and she knew he put no effort in, it wasn’t fair. He relaxed minutely under her ministrations.

 

“Not that I don’t love waking up to you in the morning,” Daphne began. “But why are you here?”

 

“How did you sleep?” He asked completely ignoring her question. She thought for a moment before responding. She was surprised to find that she had slept through the night, no nightmares or premonitions, no waking up unable to return to sleep. It was just the sound sleep she had needed.

 

“I slept really well, actually.” She continued running her hand through his soft hair, she knew he loved it even if he would never say it. “Keith, what’s wrong?” She gave up on pretenses deciding on the blunt approach.

 

“What happened to your wrist? It looks serious and I never noticed anything happen. Allura said that you had gotten it while we were fighting the Galra sentries.” Keith caught the hand running through his hair and brought it up between them. He finally turned to look at her. “This bandage looks bad.”

 

Daphne wasn’t sure exactly what to tell him so she sat up and reached to unwrap the bandages. Once she had them off, Keith began to gingerly inspect her wrist. While he looked Daphne decided on what to say. “It’s not bad Keith, the bandages are just to spare everything that isn’t my wrist from the salve Coran gave me, It's sticky and smells pretty bad. I don't want it on my clothes.”

 

He kept looking. Once he was satisfied that it was truly just a bruise he gave it back to her. She began to apply the stuff Coran had given her and wrap fresh bandage around it. “It hardly even bothers me, I’m just treating it because it looks really bad.”

 

Keith, as blunt as ever he was, “It looks like a hand print.”

 

She respond just as bluntly “That’s because it is.” Silence. She finished bandaging her wrist and turned to Keith with a smile. “Wanna go spar?”

 

“What?”

 

“Come on!” She almost whined. “I haven’t worked out in like three days. Too busy being fucking useless and sleeping. Not that those two things are mutually exclusive.”

 

“Shouldn’t you at least eat first?” Keith was warming up to the idea but just needed a little push to give in.

 

“I’m not hungry.” That was the wrong thing to say. Keith eyes narrowed. When did he become such a mom friend? “Plus if I eat right before we spar, that's just asking for trouble.” Daphne smiled her most innocent and happy smile. Keith melted a little bit.

 

“Okay. Have you seen the training deck yet?”

 

“NO!” Daphne’s eyes went wide. That sounded like fun. “Let’s go.”

 

Keith laughed a real laugh. “I think you’ll love it. It will be your personal playground within a week.” It was Daphne’s turn to laugh. She grabbed his arm and dragged him out of her room.

 

“You stay here. I need to change into my workout clothes.”

 

“You brought workout clothes?” He looked at her in disbelief.

 

“Of course I did. I had a bag ready and packed for weeks before we ran. I have a good idea of the future, remember?”

 

“Oh, right.”

 

“Now, stay.” And she closed the door on him so she could change.

 

As soon as she had finished they headed to the training deck for an intense sparring session until Shiro came to collect Keith for Voltron training. There wasn’t a clear winner so they vowed a rematch making Shiro roll his eyes. But in moments she was alone again. It didn’t bother her, she was used to it. So she continued to train alone. Eventually the lack of breakfast drove her to seek out the kitchen for some food goo. Unfortunately between her and the goo was Coran with some absolutely putrid smelling 'food'.

 

“Ah, hello Princess. Would you care to try a bit of authentic Paladin lunch? It’s not quite done yet but when it is I’ll be happy to set a plate aside for you.”

 

Daphne looked at Coran and then at the thing he was calling lunch. “Um, no thanks Coran. I think I’ll just grab a bit of goo and be on my way.” She felt sorry for the paladins come lunch time.

 

“Are you sure, Princess?”

 

“Yup. I don’t want to take away from the paladin’s lunch. And Coran, please stop calling me princess, there’s really no need.” Coran turns back to the cooking apparatus in front of him.

 

“Well if you’re sure you don’t want any, the goo is right over there.” He points to a panel on the wall with a hose coming out. Daphne gets some on a plate and gets out of there as fast as she can.

 

She takes the food goo back to her room and eats quickly. It’s not like she has anything better to do but she doesn’t like to sit around idly. She decides to go and check on the rescued prisoners. They should be getting out of the cryo-pods soon.

 

-

 

When she arrives, Pidge is already there. He’s sitting in full paladin armor, tapping his foot and staring at the ground. He doesn’t even look up when Daphne enters. “Pidge?” She tries.

 

He looks up as if startled out of a deep train of thought. “Oh. Hey Daphne.”

 

“Are you alright?”

 

“I’m fine, just tired.” Pidge tries to tell her.

 

“Pidge, come on. That’s a lie and a bad one at that.” Pidge looks up in surprise for a moment.

 

“Right, you’ve been in training to be a super-freaking-spy or whatever.” He looks down again, there is no bite to his words. Daphne can tell he is incredibly distracted.

 

“Something like that.” She concedes. “Pidge, what’s on your mind? What happened on that Galra ship and with these prisoners?” Pidge stands up and approaches the closest pod.

 

“They were prisoners along with Shiro and my family.” Daphne inhales sharply. She was not expecting that. What were the odds?

 

“Don’t worry Pidge, they will wake soon.” She come up behind Pidge and puts her hand on his shoulder. “Hopefully they will have some information for you.”

 

Pidge makes a non committal hum and turns to sit back down where he was just moments before. Daphne turns her attention to checking on the pods. She may not be able to read Altean but she knows what an error message looks like. She’s happy to find none. Daphne hears the door hiss open and turns to find Shiro entering the room. He addresses Pidge.

 

“You're as anxious as me.” Pidge looks up, slightly surprised once more.

 

“These aliens we saved know something about my family. They have to!”

 

“I hope so.”

 

“They recognized you, didn't they? They called you "Champion. What does that even mean?”

 

“I don't know. I can't remember very much from that time. But the way those guys looked at me when we freed them I don't know if I want to find out.” Just as the words leave Shiro’s mouth the first pod opens.

 

Daphne rushes forward to catch the alien before he can fall and help him out of the pod. As anxious as Pidge is, Daphne is grateful that he doesn’t surge forward just yet. He waits until Daphne has the alien sitting on the steps. Daphne takes a step back and is about to go looking for blankets when an alarm sounds. She turns to Shiro.

 

“You stay here. I’m going to find out what's going on.”

 

“Daphne wait-” He tries to protest but the alarm has already stopped. Daphne looks at him then turns and heads out the door, motioning for him to remain where he is.

 

On her way to the bridge she runs into Allura, Coran, and the remaining paladins.

 

“Allura, what was that alarm?”

 

“It was a proximity alarm. Someone is approaching the castle.” She didn’t sound too concerned so Daphne relaxed a bit.

 

“So?..” Daphne trails off, not entirely sure what the situation calls for.

 

Allura continues. “We are going to go welcome them. Why don’t you come join us.”

 

Daphne is surprised to say the least. She looks over at Keith. He has his bayard out and a frown deep set into his face. Clearly he is not on board with this but he shakes his head at her a bit. Translation, he’s got this.

 

“Um, I am actually helping with the prisoners we rescued right now. Can you point me to a bunch of blankets.”

 

Coran gives her instructions of where to find blankets and hot drinks before they quickly make their way to the doors of the castle. Before long Daphne has found the blankets and made the drinks so she heads back to the cryo-pods with her finds. By the time she returns there is only one pod left unopened.

 

She hands Shiro some blankets and Pidge starts passing around the drinks, getting everyone settled and warmed up. Finally the last pod opens. Shiro grabs another blanket and helps the last alien to sit. Daphne gabs a drink for him while Pidge begins questioning the one who emerged first.

 

“So, how long were you held captive by Zarkon?”

 

“Some for years. Decades, maybe. It's hard to tell. Time becomes a blur.”

 

“Then you must have been there when my dad and brother arrived. Sam and Matt Holt?”

 

“I never knew their names, but I certainly remember the other two Earthlings that arrived with Champion.”

 

"Champion.” Shiro seems disturbed by the name. “Why do you keep calling me that?”

 

“You really don't remember? Unbelievable!” All eyes have turned to the speaking alien as he begins his tale. “You were a legendary gladiator, undefeated in the ring. You defeated an infamous Galra gladiator known as Myzax. That was the day you earned the name Champion. I was there, as was the young Earthling. We were all prisoners, forced to fight for the entertainment of Zarkon. That day, we were set to fight Myzax, a vile beast many thought could never be defeated. Slaughter awaited us all. This ‘Matt’ was the first of us sent to fight. But fate had other plans. You were so thirsty for blood, you injured your fellow Earthling.”

 

That final statement shook Daphne out of the daze the story had put her in. There was no way Shiro had done that. There must be something missing from the story. Pidge, however, wasn’t thinking exactly along those lines.

 

He turns to Shiro and yells. “You attacked my brother? Why?”

 

“No, it can't be true.” He sounds desperate. Daphne moves to Shiro side, not sure how best to help but knowing she should be close to him. The alien speaks again.

 

“I was there. We all were.”

 

“After my brother was injured, where was he taken?”

 

“I know not.”

 

“I don't believe it. There's got to be more to the story. I couldn't have hurt my friend.”  Shiro’s grasping at straws here. Why can’t he remember. She turns to face Shiro, searching his gray eyes for signs of a concussion. But before she can get a good look he’s moving. “Wait. That ship we were held captive on crash-landed on this planet. They'll have logs of prisoners, some information.” He’s almost out the door by the time he finishes.

 

“I'm coming with you.” Pidge calls after him. They are gone in an instant and Daphne is left in the company of several strange aliens whom she will continue to care for until someone or something demands her attention.

 

Daphne makes small talk with the aliens as well as bringing them food goo and drinks. She has no idea where everyone else is but the castle is empty besides herself and the aliens. It doesn’t take too long, however, before something else goes wrong. For the second time today, the castle alarms start going off.

 

“Stay here.” She calls to the assembled aliens as she makes her way out of the room. “You should be safe here.” She runs for the bridge.

 

Not exactly sure what to do, she steps onto the platform that Allura normally occupies. Screens immediately pop up around her and a large one at the front of the room illuminates. It shows what tripped the alarms. It’s nothing Daphne has seen before but she recognizes it as Galra nonetheless. It’s a massive ship on a crash course with Arus.

 

Daphne opens the Lion’s bay doors and communication channels to the paladins. Just as she is about to speak the castle shows her the projected impact point. She freezes for half a second on noticing the black and green paladin indicators at the site. In an instant she’s back.

 

“Shiro, Pidge! Come in!” She calls, but nothing happened, she wasn’t getting though. Damn Altean controls. She had managed to open the bay doors but she couldn’t send a message! She watches the object get closer and closer but the indicators aren’t moving. She tries again. “Shiro, come in. Pidge, come in! Get out of there now!” Nothing again.

 

Stupid unreadable Altean! Daphne screams in frustration. As the sound tears itself from her throat she feels a rush of energy, a connection form. As her eyes open she catches the fading end of a flash of light. Looking to the side she saw the screens and understood. She blinks once, twice. What was moments ago unreadable Altean is now understandable...something. It isn’t English or any of the other languages she knows, but she can understand. Just a moment to take it in and she’s off again. By now the object is entirely too close for comfort. There is no way they haven’t noticed it by now.

 

“Shiro, Pidge! Come in! You need to get out of there NOW!”

 

She doesn’t get a response. Instead she heard Pidge scream.

 

**“No!”**

 

Then Shiro’s voice. **“Team, come in! We need backup! Hello?”** Daphne can see that they’re on the move, just barely. She boosts the signal through the castle to the rest of the team.

 

 **“Shiro?”** Allura’s voice comes in over the com.

 

**“Where is everyone?”**

 

Daphne feels the ground shake as the object gets closer. “Everyone else is in the Arusian village.” Daphne answers him noticing the indicators for the rest of her friends. “Paladins, get to your Lions. Shiro and Pidge are in danger.”

 

She can hear a commotion at the village and amongst the paladins. Keith takes the lead while Allura and Coran help the Arusians. Pidge is still fighting Shiro.

 

**“No! Shiro, let me go! My father!”**

 

Daphne calls to them again. “Get out of there now!” They aren’t going to make it, if they don’t get hit directly, the blast radius will knock them flat.

 

 **“Run!”** Shiro yells. But it’s too late, the object crashes in a massive explosion. She can hear them both screaming and then nothing.

 

“Shiro! Pidge! Come in.” There is silence for another terrifying moment. Everyone is holding their breath. Until finally Shiro’s voice comes over the comms.

 

**“Our lions just saved us.”**

 

 **“I didn't know they could do that.”** Pidge adds. Relief courses through Daphne. **“Huh? Um Shiro?”**

 

Daphne watches as the crashed ship opens. She looks on in horror as a mechanical monster is revealed. “What is that?” It powers on and suddenly Daphne is very, very afraid.

 

 **“Get in your lion!”** Shiro orders. Daphne looks and sure enough the black and green lions did leave their hangars on their own to rescue their paladins.

 

The monster raises its weapon and begin to charge it. Daphne leaps into action. “Particle barrier up.” The barrier raises and she pulls up defensive capabilities on the screen. She’s only a little surprised that this is working for her.

 

The beast throws a glowing orb at the two lions in front of it but they manage to leap out of the way in time. Another close call at the green lion. Daphne fires at the monster with the castle defenses but it only affords them a second of cover. She’s too far away and too inexperienced at the controls. A third pass at the green lion overwhelms its lasers and crashes right into it. Pidge and the lion hit the ground hard.

 

The monster begins to charge and Daphne is about to fire again when the black lion jumps on the beast’s back. She won’t risk that shot. The beast throws the black lion and rears up to strike when lasers come from another source. The red lion has made it to the scene not a moment too soon.

 

 **“Lay down some covering fire so they can get out of there!”** Keith takes charge of the assault and the others follow suit.

 

 **“I'm on it!”** Lance jumps in next. If Daphne wasn’t so focused on the battle and safety of her friends, she would have been astounded at the boys cooperation.

 

 **“Check this out!”** Hunk calls. **“Battle-lion head-butt!”** He manages to knock the creature to all fours, slowing it down for a minute. Keith checks in with Shiro and Pidge.

 

**“You guys okay down there?”**

 

 **“Still alive for now.”** Comes Shiro’s response. As he and Pidge rise from the ground, so too does the monster.

 

 **“Are the Galra behind this?”** Hunk asks.

 

 **“I think so, but I've never seen anything like it.”** The monster stands and stares at them.

 

 **“So, what's the plan?”** Lance pipes up. “ **Shoot at it with everything we've got? Take out its weapon? Call it names?** ”

 

 **“If we want to take this monster down, there's only one way to do it.”** And Shiro’s right. Daphne is reading ridiculous levels of power on this thing. She can hear the lions’ roar from her place on the bridge. **“Form Voltron!”**

 

While they do that, Daphne lays down her own cover fire. Forming Voltron takes a hot second but luckily it gets them out of the way of her shot at the monster. Unfortunately that attracts the monsters attention to her and to the castle which, regrettably, is unable to dodge. But just as it starts moving towards her, Voltron landing in its path.

 

**“Remember, we are one unit, fighting with one goal.”**

 

The monster charges it’s weapon, Voltron charges the beast. A swing and a miss as Voltron dodges the shot still coming for the beast. Keith aims to punch but its caught by it’s weapon. Pidge comes for the uppercut, landing his hit and forcing the monster back. Voltron throws its whole weight behind the next attack which gets blocked by the monsters arm. It then calls the energy ball back and utterly flattens Voltron. This fight is not going well.

 

 **“I thought Voltron was the most powerful weapon in the universe!”** Keith grunts out while they dodge another attack.

 

 **“Yeah, so how is this monster kicking our butts?”** Hunk asks, terrified, as they dodge again.

 

“Look out-” Daphne calls but it's too late. The monster blindsided Voltron while they focused on the orb. Voltron lands dangerously close to the village.

 

 **“Oh, no! The village! We have to protect those people!”**  

 

“Allura” Daphne calls. “Where are you?” Her response comes quickly if a little strained.

 

 **“Coran and I have the Arusians in a cave on the far side of the village.”** Just as Voltron nearly flattens the village.

 

 **“That was close!”** Shiro says.

 

“Shiro, you need to get that beast away from the village. Allura, Coran, and the Arusians are too close for comfort.” Daphne tells him.

 

 **“We got him away from the Arusians, but we can't take him down!”** Pidge supplies. Then Lance has an idea and Keith hates it. She can hear them talking but now she’s focusing on analyzing the patterns of attack. Lance misses and Voltron is on the ground again. This isn’t looking good. Shiro is calling for lasers from Pidge but instead a shield forms. Intriguing. They are getting their asses handed to them on a purple and silver platter.

 

Daphne compiles everything she's analysed so far and send it to the paladins. It’s really the only thing she can do to help right now.

 

 **“Every time we focus on that orb, we're blindsided by the monster, and every time we focus on the monster, the orb hits us!”** Hunk points out. The others are talking but she isn’t listening until she hears something particular in Keith’s voice.

 

 **“...are you there? Shiro!”** There is no response for a sickening moment. Daphne pulls up Shiro’s vital signs to make sure he’s ok. They are elevated but that is to be expected in a battle. Then his heart rate drops and his breathing slows down drastically. Daphne feels her own heart skip a beat.

 

“Shiro!?” She tries.

 

 **“That sound... I recognize this monster from my time in Zarkon's prison.”** It starts out slow but by the end of the sentence he’s speaking normally again. **“I know how to beat him!”** His heart rate and breathing pick back up again and Voltron is able to dodge the monsters next attack. He starts speaking again.

 

 **“Listen, there's a loud sound when the orb returns to the base of the weapon, and every third time, that orb needs to charge up. That's this monster's weakest point. That's when we strike.”** Absolutely brilliant Shiro! Daphne is relieved to have a plan. She also makes a mental note to check that man for a concussion and/or other brain damage when he gets back to the castle.

 

 **“Okay.”** Hunk’s voice chimes in. **“So what do we do in the meantime?”**

 

 **“Defense! Pidge, we need that shield!”** The shield locks in place just in time.

 

 **“That's one. Two more to go!”**  Even with the shield, Voltron is taking some heavy hits. It’s not going to be able to keep together much longer. After the next shot Hunk comes to the same conclusion.

 

**“We can't take much more!”**

 

 **“Last one! Everyone brace for impact!”** The orb hits and the shield splits. **“Now!”** Keith fires his laser making direct contact with the beast. But when the dust settles the monster rises again.

 

 **“It didn't work!”** Pidge cries.

 

 **“So, now what?”** Lance asks. They get hit again and go sprawling backwards.

 

 **“When I attacked him before, I had a sword!”** Daphne quickly looks around at all the information on Voltron in front of her. She frowns.

 

 **“Orb! Orb!”** Hunk calls out. They take another hit. It doesn’t look good from where Daphne is standing.

 

 **“We can't take another shot like that!”** Pidge says, Daphne has to agree.

 

“Pidge is right. But the information I have here says you should be able to create a sword.”

 

 **“Wait a second, guys! I think my lion's telling me what to do.”** Keith says. Daphne whips her eyes over to his monitor. Sure enough there is a power surge in the red lion. It’s ready to do something.

 

 **“Whatever it is, hurry up and do it! He's about to fire his third shot!”** Lance says just as the third shot is arched around and makes contact with Voltron.

 

“Come on Keith. Do it.” Daphne calls. She hears him yell as the monster is poised to strike. Suddenly the red lion is holding a sword and slashing the monster out of the sky. It falls to the ground and promptly explodes.

 

The paladin cheer. Daphne smiles when they praise Keith. She reaches out to Allura and Coran.

 

“The danger has passed. Voltron has defeated the monster. The Arusians can safely return to their village now. I’m sending some of the paladins to bring you back to the castle now.”

 

 **“Thank you, Daphne.”** Princess Allura’s voice comes in. **“We shall see you shortly.”**

 

-

 

Daphne dispatches Keith, Lance, and Hunk to retrieve the Princess and Coran. She orders Shiro to report to the infirmary immediately not caring that the others could hear or what they would think. And because she didn’t trust him to find some other thing that needed to be done first, she was waiting for him in the black lion’s hangar when he landed.

 

“Daphne, what’s wrong? Why do I have to report to the infirmary?”

 

“I was monitoring your vitals during the fight and they got scary.” She turned and gestured for him to follow. Thankfully he followed, she wasn’t sure what she would have done if he hadn’t.

 

Daphne self consciously tugs on the sleeve of her hoodie, making sure it covers the bandage on her wrist, unaware that Shiro tracks her movement from over her shoulder. It tugs on something in his memory. The feeling is different from the ones he gets when he is trying to remember his days as a prisoner of the Galra. It’s more like a dream he is trying to recall. They walk in silence the rest of the way to the infirmary. Once they pass through the area with the cryo-pods Daphne speaks again.

 

“I also want to check to see if you have a concussion. The lapses in your memory are starting to concern me.” The door whooshes closed behind Shiro as he follows her in. He doesn’t say anything in response. Daphne doesn’t say anything further, only gestured for him to sit on the closest bed. He sits without a word. When he does, he turns the full weight of his gaze on her.

 

Daphne stops in her tracks, caught by his eyes. She gasps softly and takes a small step forward so she is standing in front of him. As close as they can be without touching. They stare at each other for a moment. Shiro is the first to move. He slowly raises his human hand like he is going to take her hand in his own but Daphne startles. She breaks eye contact, drops her gaze, and pulls away over to the near-by counter. Shiro drops his arm. Daphne reaches for a tablet and just stares at it for a moment. She can understand what it says now, that isn’t the problem. The problem is Shiro and the very heavy silence that has settled over the two of them.

 

She takes the tablet up more aggressively than necessary and turns back to Shiro. He takes note of all of this and offers her a small, soft smile in an attempt to soothe her. She frowns but some of the tension leave her shoulders. She starts to examine him with the light. He behaves himself, submitting to whatever tests she wants to run. Her frown deepens as she continues working. Eventually the silence becomes too much and Shiro speaks.

 

“If you keep doing that, your face is going to freeze that way.” She freezes and when Shiro reaches, this time for her face, she doesn’t move. He takes his human hand an smooths the frown and worry lines from her face.

 

Daphne closes her eyes, relaxing under his touch. She missed him. Shiro takes his hand and runs it down the side of her face to her neck. Daphne shivers. His hand keeps moving down to the place where her neck meets her shoulder. He stops there, his thumb in the hollow at the base of her neck. Daphne’s eyes flutter open again only to have her blue-green eyes meet his gray ones. His gaze is intense for a moment making Daphne swallow with nervousness.

 

He smiles a little smile at her. “That’s better.” He says before taking his robot arm and running the back of its hand across and down her hair. “You’re so tense. What’s got you so on edge?”

 

“You.” Daphne responds before thinking. Shiro’s eyes widen fractionally and Daphne rushes to clarify. “Your memory and the weird vital signs during the battle.” She raises the tablet up in between them again to read off of it only to discover that she’s unable to read it once again. “Damn it!” She throws the tablet back to its counter while Shiro looks on in surprise, spell broken. “Stupid fucking Altean writing! I could read this literally two minutes ago!” She storms around the room, unreasonably upset.

 

“Daphne?” When he gets no answer he gets up from the bed and walks over to where she has taken up residence in the corner. He opens his arms for her but she isn’t ready to settle yet. She feels out of control. She goes to push past him but he grabs her wrist in an attempt to settle her.

 

“Aha!” She cried out. He had grabbed her injured wrist. The one he had injured two nights ago. She folded herself into him around the hand holding her wrist.

 

“Daphne?!” Shiro panicked. He let go of her wrist but she was already curled around his arm not letting go. “Daphne what's wrong? Did I hurt you?” His other arm came to rest around her back, hugging the smaller girl to himself.

 

Daphne doesn’t answer, she continues to hide in Shiro. He starts rubbing her back and leads her to the bed he had been occupying until a minute ago. With her curled around his arm it was a bit difficult but he managed to get her up onto it.

 

Daphne tries desperately to hold on to Shiro’s arm so he can’t see but in the end he is stronger than she is. He manages to extract his arm from her clutches without hurting her further. Daphne drops her head in defeat. Shiro takes her wrist carefully in his hand and peels back the sleeve of her hoodie exposing the bandage.

 

“Daphne what happened?” He asks deeply concerned.

 

“It’s not as bad as it looks.” She quickly supplies and tries to take her arm back. He lets it go, not wanting to hurt her further but he isn’t letting the issue rest.

 

Shiro holds out his hand and fixes her with a look. “Daphne.’ He says staring her down. “I just want to make sure that you are ok.” When she makes no move to offer her wrist he tries again. “Please let me take a look. If it’s broken we need to take care of it.”

 

“It isn’t broken.” She finally says. “I had Coran take a look at it yesterday, He said it's just a nasty bruise. The bandage is just because Coran gave me something to put on it to help it heal faster. It smells bad and is sticky so I don’t want it on my clothes.”

 

“Then why won’t you let me see it?” Daphne had no answer to that. They stared each other down for another minute until Shiro finally reached for Daphne’s wrist and she allowed him to take it. He unwrapped the bandage and gasped. Despite Coran’s salve, her wrist still looked pretty bad.

 

Shiro just looked for a minute. Then, ever so slowly, he raised his robotic arm and gently placed his hand over the hand print on Daphne’s wrist, it was a perfect match. He looked horrified, Daphne looked away.

 

“I-I did this, didn’t I?” His voice is hard and soft at the same time. Angry with himself but trying not to scare the girl in front of him. Daphne didn’t answer but Shiro didn’t need her to. “Why didn’t you say anything?’

 

“Because I didn’t want you to freak out. It isn’t a big deal, it was an accident.” Daphne tried to tell him.

 

The memory comes back and hits Shiro all at once. “You tried t-to wake me from a nightmare and I threw you across the room.” He pulls his robot arm back and away from her like it might do it again.

 

“It’s ok, Shiro. You didn’t know what you were doing.” He looked her in the eyes. The look was full of self-loathing.

 

“It isn’t ok that I hurt you. I’m supposed to protect you.” Shiro looks gutted.

 

“Ok so real talk, you are not _supposed_ to protect me. I don’t need you to protect me, in fact I need you to _not_ protect me.” Daphne gets up off the bed and into Shiro’s face. “You are the black paladin of Voltron, defender of the universe, you don’t have time to focus on my safety. I’ve decided to make it my job to take care of you all but you don’t have that luxury. The universe is bigger than any one person and you can’t forget it.”

 

Shiro tries to interrupt but Daphne isn’t finished. “I’m going to keep putting myself in dangerous situations and you won’t be able to stop me. What if it comes down to a choice one day? What would you do if you had to sacrifice me to save the universe? Could you do it?” Shiro turns away from her. “Could you do it Shiro?” Another moment without an answer. “Well, if that day ever comes, you know what the right answer is.” Shiro still doesn’t look at her. She brushes bast him to pick up the tablet she had discarded earlier. She’s only mildly surprised to find that she can understand it once more. She’s even more surprised when Shiro speaks.

 

“Well, what does it say?” Morbid curiosity evident in his voice.

 

“It says that you have a concussion and your cortisol levels are way too high. Other than that you are fine.”

 

“Really?” Shiro sounds genuinely surprised and Daphne can’t blame him, she is too.

 

“Yes. There is evidence of old injuries and trauma but that's it. Is there something in particular that you want me to investigate?” She knows what he’s after but she isn’t supposed to. Keith had told her one night shortly after it had come out that Shiro had been selected for the Kerberos mission. It was Shiro’s secret to tell or keep so she kept quiet.

 

“No, that’s alright.” He looks away when he says that.

 

“Ok, well, there isn’t much that can be done for a concussion. At least that I know of. I’ll talk to Coran and see if he has anything but in the meantime please at least try to take it easy.”

 

“Ok, I’ll try.”

 

Daphne grumbles. “Yeah, I know what that means.”

 

Shiro laughs. “I promise.” And it’s so good to hear Shiro laugh again.

 

Daphne smiles up at him and goes in for a hug. It takes Shiro by surprise but he hugs her back with his human arm for a minute. He then pulls back from the hug.

 

“Daphne, I have to go. There is something I need to take care of. I’ll see you at dinner ok?”

 

“Ok, I’ll see you later.”

 

Shiro lingered in the door for a moment like he wanted to say something. Daphne smiled at him, he returned the smile, and then he exits without another word.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

No hand drawn image this week but here is Daphne's family tree and her and her siblings ages at the start of the story.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a reminder that a lot of this is not mine. I use stuff directly from the show and build around it. Also just because I don't write a scene doesn't mean that it doesn't exist, it just means that Daphne isn't in it and I have nothing to add to it. 
> 
> Also there are some things that I just can't find a definitive canon answer for so I make them up as I go. So please don't get mad about those little details.
> 
> Please leave comments and Kudos if you like it or if you don't, that works for me too. Thanks!


	14. S1e4 Fall of the Castle of Lions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The castle is hosting a party to celebrate Voltron's victory against the Gladiator, but is it a good idea? No, it really isn't. You know what else isn't a good idea? Splitting up.  
> Mistake after mistake is made by the residents of the Castle of Lions and not without consequence.

As soon as the door slid shut behind Shiro, Daphne was hit with another premonition. It wasn’t a vision like the one she had experienced with Allura that had yet to come to pass. It was strong but it was no vision. 

 

Daphne focused. She found a desperate Pidge and Allura, pain mixed in with Lance and Shiro, and frustration enveloping Keith. She pushed harder. What about Hunk and Coran? 

 

She was focusing so hard and so lost in the future that she didn’t hear Keith and Allura enter the room. Keith saw Daphne standing in the middle of the room, eyes closed and with a familiar look on her face. He knew what she was doing, Allura, however, did not. She made to step forward and ask what Daphne was doing but Keith stopped her.

 

“Shhh.” He whispered. “She’s focusing.”

 

Allura didn’t respond, she only nodded. 

 

Daphne frowned, unable to find any information on Hunk or Coran. Allura noticed that when Daphne had frowned, Keith had frowned with her. Interesting. He took a tentative step forward, it seemed unconsciously.

 

Daphne was still too lost in the future fog to notice them. She was pushing harder, father. She was looking for a cause, searching for who or what could do this to them. And then it hit her, it hit her like a brick wall. An energy that should have felt strong in it’s own right, something that should have been sweet but had long since rotted away leaving only an evil, bitter taste and strength through another source, a puppet of darkness. 

 

Daphne choked under the onslaught of sensation. She lost her focus and started gasping for air, eyes flying open meeting Keith concerned ones for only a moment. Keith rushed forward to help, to catch her if she fell. She didn’t fall but she did allow Keith to wrap an arm around her waist while she caught her breath. 

 

“Daphne, are you ok? What happened?” Keith asked as soon as he felt her settle a bit.

 

“I’m alright now.” She responded. Allura stepped forward.

 

“What happened to you? And where is Shiro? We came to make sure he was ok after you ordered him to the infirmary.”

 

“Oh yeah, Shiro is fine now. I don’t _really_ know what happened and I can’t guarantee that it won’t happen again. He has a bit of a concussion but there isn’t anything I can do about that. I think his memory loss and subsequent remembering of events caused the strange readings but there is nothing I can do about it except continue to monitor him.”

 

Keith interrupted. “Ok, but what about you? You still haven't told us what happened.”

 

“Right after Shiro left I got a premonition, a bad one. I think whatever it is will happen soon. Stay on guard and stay armed.” 

 

“If all the paladins wear their armor at the party tonight, it won’t look out of place.” Allura suggests. “I, unfortunately, will have to wear diplomatic formal-wear. I’m afraid you probably should too as a princess of Earth.” 

 

“What party?!” Daphne was stunned, this was the first she was hearing about a party. “We can’t have a party tonight. People are going to get hurt!” 

 

I can’t cancel the party now. I have already invited the Arusians over tonight before we leave this planet tomorrow.” 

 

Daphne groans. As much as she thinks the party is a bad idea she understands the rules of diplomacy, both written and not. That doesn’t mean, however, that she needs to be in attendance.

 

“I understand, but I’m not going to be there. I need to figure out what’s going on. There was something familiar about what’s threatening us but I can’t put my finger on it.” Keith, who hasn’t let go of her waist yet, spoke.

 

“I’m going with you.”

 

“You need to stay here for the party. I want you to be here on guard. Watch over the castle, keep everyone safe. 

 

“What are you going to do?” 

 

“I’m going to the Arusian village. I need to check something out and I think that’s the place to start.” 

 

“I don’t like the idea of you going off on your own, especially with the recent galra attacks.” Allura points out. She frowns, not a fan Daphne’s plan in the slightest. 

 

“Don’t worry, it’ll be fine. Worst case scenario I send out an SOS for immediate evac.” Daphne shrugs as if the idea doesn’t bother her in the slightest. 

 

“What is an ‘SOS’?”

 

“It’s a signal code for extreme distress. Some people think it stands for ‘save our souls’ or 'save our ship’ but those are both backronyms.” Keith supplies. The girls just stare at him for a second before he continues. “I’m with Allura on this one. I don’t want you to go where I can’t protect you.” Daphne was getting really tired of hearing that. 

 

“I don’t need you or anyone else to protect me.” Keith opens his mouth to protest but Daphne keeps going. “I’ll give you the same speech I gave Shiro like half an hour ago. Not only do I not need you to protect me but you also can’t afford the luxury of protecting me.” Daphne was on a role. Fueled by her fear, anger, and indignation, she let him have it. There were reasons she shunned the title of princess, one of which is that it causes people, especially men, to see her as weak when she was anything but. “You have a duty to the universe now, the greater good. During a battle you can’t be worrying about me, I’m just a distraction for you. Duty first.” And at that moment she really couldn’t help herself. “That’s why we broke up, isn’t it?” She practically spat that last bit at him. 

 

Not waiting for an answer to her question, she stormed out of the infirmary to her room to get ready for her mission. She didn’t even notice the couple of tears that escaped her eyes.

 

-

 

After she was appropriately dressed and armed Daphne made her way towards the castle's front doors, determined to make it to the Arusian’s village even if it meant traveling on foot. As she walked she mulled over what had just happened. She was going to have to apologize to Keith later, he didn’t deserve that at all. Why was she like this? 

 

Suddenly Hunk rounded the corner in front of her. “Hey Daphne!” Hunk was such a sweetheart. He had almost instantly taken to Daphne and treated her like a friend despite the fact that they hardly knew each other. And the fact that she had scared him when they first met. He was like a big teddy bear. 

 

“Hi Hunk.” She tried to keep all the emotion out of her voice but judging by the way he frowned she hadn’t succeeded. “How are you? You weren’t hurt in the battle today, were you?” 

 

“No, I’m alright. Man, it was scary though.”  The earnestness in his voice made Daphne smile a bit. “Are you ok though? You seem kind of down?”

 

Daphne sighed, she didn’t want to lie to him but she didn’t want to get into it either. “I’m alright, just stressed.” 

 

“I’m sorry. I guess we’re all a little stressed out right now. Is there anything I can do to help?” He looked at her expectantly, there was hope there as well. He really wanted to be able to help. 

 

“Actually, if you wouldn’t mind, I could use a lift to the Arusian village.” She gave him a shy smile and hoped he wouldn’t ask too many questions. 

 

“Sure!” His face lit up with innocent joy at being able to help.” Why do you need to go there?” 

 

Daphne smiled in what she hoped was a reassuring manner. Although if Hunk was being honest, it looked more like Keith when he got a reckless idea, like when he had driven them all off a cliff a few days ago. 

 

“Do you trust me?” She asked, steering Hunk towards the yellow lion’s hanger. 

 

“Uhh hmm. That question never leads to anything good.”

 

Daphne laughed a real laugh. Hunk was something apart from the rest of them, it was refreshing. “Don’t worry, Hunk. I just need a ride there, that’s all. Can you drop me off please?” She pleaded with her eyes.

 

“Well um… yeah, I-I mean I guess I can do that. No harm in dropping you off is there?” 

 

“Thanks Hunk. I really appreciate it.” 

 

In just a few minutes they were off and another few saw Hunk dropping Daphne off just outside the village.. 

 

“Are you sure you’ll be ok?” Hunk sounded quite nervous.

 

“I’ll be fine Hunk.” She threw him a smile over her shoulder she disembarked. “You should probably head back to the castle for the party. It’s going to start soon. The Arusians are almost to the castle.”

 

“Yeah, ok. Be careful, ok?”

 

“I promise.” 

 

Daphne waves Hunk off then gets to work. It was already dark out and Arus’ moon was rising. There was no time to waste. Unfortunately, other than the village, she didn’t know where to start. 

 

Daphne began to make her way over to the edge of the village. Once there she began to make her way in toward the center. Slowly, keeping her eyes peeled and weapons out, she looked and listened for anything at all. It was deadly quiet in the village. She was about to hit the village center when she changed a glance around the corner. Her heart stopped. 

 

There were nearly a dozen galran Guard sentries the nearest of which were merely feet away. Her breath caught in her throat. If she called for help now they would surely hear her and she’d be overrun before help could get to her. She could run, maybe, but that wasn’t why she was there. She was here for answers and she hadn’t found them yet. 

 

Looking around she spied one of the arusian houses that was perfectly placed to afford her cover and a good place to watch from. The only problem was that it was a quarter of the way around the village center. She could make it, most likely.

 

Moving quickly and quietly, she backed up a few streets before heading over and around the village. She made it around without incident and into the house with little difficulty. From her new vantage point she could see that it was much worse than she thought. She counted ten sentries and one actual Galra. She didn’t recognize him, it wasn’t Sendak. This Galra was smaller and less furry.

 

“Haxus!” a booming and all too familiar voice came from somewhere behind Daphne. She was frozen, how could she have been so stupid. They had assumed the Sendak was dead but they didn’t have any proof. “Are the sentries finished? It is time to leave.” Daphne highly doubted that he meant leave the planet. 

 

“Just a few more ticks, Commander Sendak.” 

 

“Good, then there is just one more thing to take care off.” Daphne’s blood ran cold. She could hear Sendak right outside of the hut she currently occupied. He hadn’t seen her enter had he? She surely would have been dead by now if that had been the case. Daphne knew she was good but she also wasn’t an idiot, she was in no way on his level. 

 

There was a moment of silence punctuated only by the sentries movements and then the ceiling of the hut was raining down on her. The walls buckled under the force of Sendak’s fist and Daphne was covered in a layer of debris. 

 

A moment later a giant hand lifted her from the rubble. She was raised into Sendak’s field of view by his metallic hand. Starring in horror, Daphne knew she was dead. There was no way she would be able to make it out on her own, not against a dozen sentries and two galran warriors. But she wouldn’t panic, she wouldn’t give him the satisfaction. 

 

“Haxus, send the sentries to their posts, make ready for the assault. I’ll deal with this nuisance.”

 

Daphne’s blood ran cold. She was running out of time. 

 

In only a moment Daphne is able to take stock of herself. Not too bad. She’s dusty and bruised and literally in Sendak’s clutches, but she’s still in fighting shape. 

 

Haxus and most of the sentries had departed. Daphne finally got a good look at the remaining ones. There were five of them and they were in pieces, in some cases tied together and stood up to look functional. What on Earth was that for? Despite the situation, Daphne chuckled darkly to herself. She wasn’t on Earth anymore. None of them were on Earth anymore, if they even ever had been to begin with. Earth wasn’t relevant right now. 

 

“What is it, little human?Are you scared? Do not worry, I will kill you quickly. I have far more important matters to attend to.” And then he threw her halfway across the village where she hit the ground, bounced once, rolled to a stop and didn’t move. 

 

Sendak took his time approaching the lifeless girl. He kicked her body and when she simply rolled over like a rag doll without a sound, he turned his back and walked away. 

 

-

 

“Keith, have you seen Daphne? The party is starting.” Shiro had come up next to Keith as he surveyed the room. The Earth princess was nowhere in sight.

 

“She went to the Arusian village to check on something.” Shiro noted the Keith’s tone had a sharp edge to it.

 

“She wanted to check on something in the village? Why?” 

 

“She had a premonition that freaked her out and she insisted on going. She wouldn’t let me go with her and yelled at me for trying to protect her.” Keith was angry, Shiro could tell. But he also knew that Keith was worried for her, Shiro was too.

 

“How long ago did she leave, do you know?”

 

“No, I don’t.” Keith was getting more agitated and worked up.

 

“Hey, Keith, it’s ok. Daphne isn’t your responsibility. Don’t worry, I’m sure she’s alright. Daphne knows Garrison protocol, I’m sure she’ll call to check in soon. 

 

-

 

When Sendak kicked her Daphne had to grit her teeth and let her limbs go limp. The helmet helped to hide her face, thank goodness. But she wasn’t going to be able to play dead for long. It was a good thing he had “more important matters” on his mind. It made him sloppy. 

 

She waited a moment for his footsteps to starts moving away. She waited another to make sure his steps were steady before she raised her head. He was headed away from her, back turned, utterly unconcerned with the “little human” behind him.

 

His mistake.

 

She drew two knives from their sheaths, quickly and quietly she raised herself from the ground. It wouldn’t be easy to land a meaningful hit with all his armor. The neck then.

 

She dropped into a crouch beginning her approach. Halfway there she moved to a flat out sprint, still trying to be as quiet as possible. Unfortunately Sendak must have heard her coming. As she jumped, ready to strike, he turned and she went flying over his shoulder. She rolled, landing in a crouch. However, she came up with only one of the two knives she had started with. The other was lodged in Sendak’s neck. She smiled. She hadn’t missed completely. 

 

Sendak raised his hand and pulled the knife from his neck. He took a brief moment to inspect the offending object then flicked it away. 

 

“A valiant effort little human but it will take much more than that to kill me.” He began to advance on her once more. Daphne rose all the way to her feet and pointed her remaining knife at Sendak.

 

“Then I will just have to try harder.” She spat.

 

“You would have made an entertaining gladiator in the arena.” He raised his metal arm, preparing to strike. “But now I am finished with your games.” He snarled. “You are in my way.”

 

“I will not yield.” Daphne’s voice came out clear and strong despite the terror and pain coursing through her. 

 

“There is no ‘yield’ little human. Victory or death.” Then he charged. 

 

-

 

The Arusians were putting on some sort of reenactment of Voltron’s earlier battle. Allura was dutifully watching but Shiro had other things on his mind. He had been secretly making his way around to the others to ask if they had seen Daphne. 

 

Coran hadn’t seen her and seemed relatively unconcerned, citing that Arus was a peaceful planet. Pidge hadn’t either but said he’d go outside and watch just in case Daphne send some sort of signal. He couldn’t get to Allura at the front of the proceedings so he headed over to ask Hunk instead. 

 

“Hey, Hunk, Have you seen Daphne recently?”

 

“Yeah, I saw her just before the party.” He looked and sounded nervous. “She asked me to drop her off at the Arusian village.”

 

“And did you?”

 

“Yeah. Should I not have? Is she ok?”

 

Shiro sighed. He didn’t want anyone to panic. Everything was probably fine. “Hunk, calm down. I’m sure everything is just fine. Next time let’s make sure no one goes off on their own, it could be dangerous.”

 

“Ok.”

 

-

 

Daphne was forced entirely on the defensive. She ducked, dodged, and danced out of Sendak’s grip, just barely. Under normal conditions she would be able to do this for hours but now her head pounded, her ribs burned, and her reflexes slowed. She wouldn’t be able to keep this up much longer. 

 

She tried to reach the castle but the comm link on her helmet must have broken in one of her earlier falls. This, however, was all the distraction Sendak needed to get under her guard. 

 

That momentary distraction was all it took to slow her next dodge and Sendak was able to grab her around the waist with his metal hand. However, instead of throwing her, he smashed her and his hand through several small trees on the edge of the village until they hit a larger one.

 

Daphne groans. Sendak pulls his first back and slams her against the tree again. Daphne goes limp, hardly conscious now. Sendak brings his first back once more, but instead of slamming her against the tree again, he throws her, hard. Daphne feels incredible pain, her vision goes white on impact, and then nothing. She doesn’t move again.

 

This time before he eaves, Sendak sniffs the air. He can smell the iron tang of the human’s blood. Through the broken pieces of the girl’s helmet he can see her blood begin to run.

 

Satisfied, Sendak leaves the village. He goes to join Haxus outside the castle of lions. It is time to begin the assault. 

 

-

 

“Thank you, Your Majesty, for that wonderful production.” Allura begins promptly at the end of the Arusian performance. “It saddens me that we must leave tomorrow, but we must continue our battle with Zarkon and spread peace throughout the universe.” She turns to the King from the rest of the assembled life forms. “Your Highness please accept this gift. This will allow you to contact us anytime you need help. Arus will be the first planet in the Voltron Alliance.” She dearly hopes that they understand that it is to be used for only for Galra-related emergencies. 

 

“Hoorah!” The Arusian’s cheer with their king. 

 

The party breaks into small group conversations. Subjects range from food and drink to team Voltrons potential new group cheer. Keith doesn’t get it. Arusians, humans, and an Altean socialize but the princess slips away before anyone can engage her in conversation. She isn’t the only one, however, who isn’t in a party mood. 

 

“Not feeling well?” Coran asks as he approaches a scowling Shiro. “Try some Nunvill.

Settles the stomach and brightens your smile.”

 

“I'm not sure we should be letting everyone wander in and out of the castle like this.

It doesn't seem safe.” Shiro was rather on edge. Daphne hadn’t reported in yet and she definitely should have by now. He had even tried reaching out to her a few minutes ago but got no response. 

 

“Oh, these Arusians won't hurt anything.” Just as Coran says this one of the floating drink trays goes part with two small arusians swing off of it. “Much.” Seconds later they crash it. Coran decides that this doesn’t really count. “Besides, it's only fair to let them see the inside of a castle that's been sitting on their planet for so long.”

 

Shiro decides not to comment on the two arusians as they were not the danger he was thinking of in the first place. “But who knows when Zarkon will attack again?” He gets off the wall he was leaning against and starts walking away.  “I'm going to do a perimeter check, just in case.” He was also going to ask Pidge if he’d gotten anything from Daphne yet. 

 

-

 

Sendak makes his way to a ridge outside of the castle. The same ridge where Haxus is waiting for him and for his next order.

 

“Commander Sendak, the sentries are in position around the Arusian village.” 

 

“Luck is on our side.” Sendak smiles. “Look, the Castle defenses are down. The door is wide open.” Haxus begins to scan the Castle and entry way, looking for a way in. Sendak continues. “With all these Arusians coming in and out, it should be nothing for you to infiltrate.” Then Haxus spots something interesting. 

 

“I may not have to. Look.” He directs Sendak’s attention to the green paladin and the small object floating nearby. “The small one has a Galra drone they've repurposed.

If I can just get close enough to clone its signature code, I can send our bomb drone in undetected.” 

 

“I knew you would not disappoint me, Haxus.” Sendak smiles, reveling in a victory he is sure will come quickly and easily. Haxus sprints off into the woods, heading for the Castle. 

 

-

 

After confirming with Shiro that he had received no signals from Daphne, Pidge headed back into the castle. He had been trying to gather food for his departure when Allura had intercepted him and engaged him in conversation. It had been a bit awkward but she kept pushing for some reason so he decided to tell her what he was planning. 

 

“I'm leaving Team Voltron.” She looked excited for a moment as if Pidge had said something else but then quickly her face fell.

 

“Wait, what?”

 

“I decrypted the information from the Galra ship about where my family might be, or at least where they were. I've made up my mind. I'm leaving tonight.” 

 

“Pidge, you can't. You're one of five paladins. You have a sacred trust to defend the universe.” Allura pleaded with Pidge but that only served to make him angry. 

 

“My first priority is to find my family! I thought you of all people would understand. If you had a chance to get your father back, wouldn't you?” Pidge instantly regretted his words but his decision on leaving remained the same. “I'm sorry. I should go tell everyone else.” He walked away leaving Allura, and a few nearby arusians, standing dumbstruck in his wake. 

 

-

 

Pidge made his way outside first. “Shiro? I need to talk to you.”

 

Haxus seized his opportunity. While the two paladins were distracting each other he slid out from his hiding place, only as much as necessary, in order to get the information he needed. 

 

“Signature code cloned.” The black paladin turned just as Haxus finished. He quickly hid behind the rock once again. Once he transferred the codes to the bomb drone he reported to Sendak again. “Bomb activated.”

 

Sendak’s voice came over their comms. “ **Good, now activate the sentries to cause the distraction.** ”

 

The bomb drone flew easily and unchallenged into the castle. Haxus ran off to join back up with Sendak. As he ran he gave the sentries the command to begin burning the arusian village. 

 

-

 

Lance hadn’t been alone long when Coran interrupted his thoughts. 

 

“Mind if I join you?” Lance looked over at the man as he jumped down from the platform to stand next to Lance. 

 

“How far away from Earth do you think we are, Coran?”

 

“Let's take a look.” He moved to his command station and brought up the interactive map of the known universe. “Earth is over here.” He points to an unremarkable smudge on the map. Then he begins to pull the map over and over again. “And we're all the way over…” But before he can reach the area of space they are in, Lance interrupts. 

 

“You ever notice how far the planets are from each other, Coran?” It’s a sentimental statement but Coran seems to miss the point.  

 

“Yes. Haven't you been paying attention?” He says while continuing to move the map around. Lance stands to join him.

 

“Yeah, but I mean, like, they're really, really far away.” The map finally comes to a stop. “Like, say, Earth. It's so far, I can't even see it.” Lance gets a far away look in his eyes, lost in memories of his home. “The The blue oceans, the white clouds, green grass. I-I can't see any of it.”

 

Finally Coran understands. “You miss Earth. I understand. I miss Altea.”

 

“I know we're supposed to be brave paladins and Defenders of the Universe or whatever, but, honestly, I just want to go home.” Lance feels a little like a child when he says this. But he is only 17, maybe its ok to still be a little childish at 17. 

 

“If I could go home, I would.” Coran’s voice get’s a bit sad when he speaks. The two are standing, staring at the map slowly drifting over and image of the Earth’s solar system. 

 

“I miss rain and splashing in puddles.” Lance continues to reminisce. 

 

“Rain?”

 

 “Yeah. It's water that falls from the sky.”

 

“Oh, we had that on Altea. Only, it wasn't water, more like rocks. Razor-sharp and boiling-hot. Oh, they could knock a hole right in your head.” Coran chuckles. 

 

“Sounds fun.” Lance responds with only a little bit of sarcasm. 

 

“Yeah.”

 

-

 

“Pidge, no.” Shiro said, devastated by the news but Pidge pressed on. 

 

“The download from the Galra ship was enough to at least get me in the right direction to start my search. I have a pod all ready to go.” He had the decency to look sheepish but he wasn't going to abandon his family now that he had the means to find them. 

 

“You can't leave.” Keith exploded.

 

“You can't tell me what to do!” 

 

“If you leave, we can't form Voltron.” Keith advanced. “And that means we can't defend the universe against Zarkon. You're not the only one with a family. All these Arusians have families. Everyone in the universe has families.” Keith laced every word with misdirected venom. 

 

“Yeah, I have a family.” Hunk joined in. “They live on Earth. I want to be with them. Is that, like, a thing that can happen?”

 

Allura was is disbelief. “You want to leave, too?” Team Voltron was falling apart right in front of her. 

 

“Of course I do!” Hunk defended. “Look, Voltron is super-cool, don't get me wrong, but I never signed up for a lifetime in space, fighting aliens.”

 

Keith had had enough. He was angry. “You're putting the lives of two people over the lives of everyone else in the entire galaxy!” Keith was attacking Pidge with his words but Shiro wasn’t going to let that go. He grabbed Keith’s arm and forced him back.

 

“Keith, that's not how a team works.People have to want to be a part of it. They can't be forced.” He turned then to Pidge. “If you want to leave, we won't try to stop you. But, please, just think about what you're doing.” He desperately wanted Pidge to stay. 

 

“I'm sorry. You're going to have to find someone else to pilot the Green Lion. Maybe Daphne can take my place.” 

 

“I can't believe it.” Allura was at a loss. “This team is falling apart. How will we ever form Voltron?”

 

-

 

Coran had finally persuaded Lance to come and rejoin the others. They were just heading off the bridge when Rover appeared.

 

“Hey, Rover.” Lance said. Humans will pack bond with anything. “Wait. Where's Pidge?”

 

At that moment the drone flew up to the castle’s power crystal and abruptly started beeping and glowing red. 

 

“Coran, look out!” Lance screamed and launched himself at Coran trying to protect him from the blast. 

 

The entire castle shakes and loses power. The others come running.

 

They find Coran just sitting up from a pile of debris. Shiro takes charge.

 

“What happened?” He asks Coran.

 

“I'm not sure.” Hunk helps Coran to stand. 

 

Allura is the first to notice the damage. “The crystal!” And as she approaches “Lance!” 

 

Shiro runs towards the unconscious boy. “Lance? Lance!” He gets only a groan for a response. 

 

“We have to get Lance to the infirmary!” Pidge calls.

 

“Without the crystal, the Castle has no power.” Allura points out.

 

Shiro, who has been looking Lance over, gives his verdict. “He doesn't look good.” Just then the Arusian King rushes into the room. 

 

“Lion warriors, our village is under attack! We need help!” 

 

“Daphne.” Keith realizes. “Let's get to the lions!”

 

“You can't.” Allura informs them. “They're sealed in their hangars. There's no way to get them out. We're defenseless.” 

 

“Will you not help us?” The king demands.

 

“We'll help you. We just…” Keith tries to explain but then everyone turns as Lance makes a noise. 

 

“This is bad.” Hunk states as Coran removes himself from Hunk’s grip. 

 

“We have to get a new crystal to get the Castle working again. But, to get a new crystal, we need a ship.”

 

“The pod I was loading.” Pidge points out. “We can use that! I left the bay door open.”

 

“I can use the scanner in the pod to see if there's a Balmera nearby.” Coran says. It’s their first bit of luck so far. “Hunk, you come with me. I'll need someone big to help me carry the crystal.”

 

“A Balmera?”

 

“It's where the crystals come from. I'll tell you about it on the way!” Coran, Hunk, and Pidge quickly depart for the pod bay.

 

“I'll go see what's happening at the Arusian village.” Keith tells Shiro. “I’ll keep an eye out for Daphne as well.” 

 

“I'll go with you, Keith.” Allura says. “I brought this on the poor Arusians.” 

 

Shiro nods. “I'll tend to Lance and stand watch over the Castle.”

 

Keith and Allura head out as well leaving Shiro with Lance and unsure of what to do for him. He decides to take Lance with him to another area of the castle. Shiro needs to guard the now stuck open doors and it’s probably a good idea to get him out of the room filled with dust in the air. He picks Lance up and carries him over his shoulder. 

 

“Hang on, buddy. Help is on the way.” 

 

As Shiro entered the hall he stared down to the open doorway. Something was moving in the distance. Multiple somethings. He takes a step backwards, a chill running down his spine. 

 

“Sendak.” Shiro lays Lance down on a bench in the wall and runs out to meet this fight head on. 

 

Shiro stood at the mouth of the castle in defiance against Sendak. “Stand aside.”

 

“No. You're not getting in.” He activates his arm, ready to defend his new home.

 

“Yes, I am.” Sendak throws his robotic arm at Shiro, throwing him back then grabbing his arm and hauling him forwards. 

 

Sendak drags Shiro across the ground, dropping Shiro just in front of his feet. He raises his fist and brings it down hard on the ground between them. The impact throws Shiro backwards, flipping over and landing with one knee planted. Shiro activates his arm again and charges at Sendak with a fierce determination. Bringing his arm around, Shiro goes in for a strike but Sendak raises his arm and Shiro’s slides along it doing no apparent damage. 

 

Shiro reverses and comes around for another strike this time pushing Sendak back with the force of it. He charges Sendak again, jumping up for a third strike. He misses as Sendak dodges the attack. 

 

Sendak takes the opportunity to strike at Shiro. He misses but Shiro is forced to roll to avoid the hit. Undeterred, Sendak takes his arm and sweeps it across the ground towards Shiro who has to jump to avoid. They come at each other, fists raised and at full power. The impact shakes the ground beneath their feet and punches through the air with corrupted quintessence. They stare each other down. 

 

“I see you spent some time with the druids. They do love to experiment. Too bad you didn't get the latest model.” With that Sendak forces a power surge through his arm throwing Shiro off balance. He extended his arm to throw Shiro halfway down the castle’s entry hall, letting him bounce and roll the rest of the way into the castle. He rolls all the way to where he had left Lance. Shiro struggled to rise but there would be no reprieve. 

 

Shiro looks up in time to see Sendak’s fist flying towards him and to scramble out of the way. Sendak pulled himself forward by his arm now firmly implanted into the floor of the castle, launching himself at Shiro. Shiro stumbled back, he manages to grab the flying galra and flip him over, throwing him an impressive distance before charging again. But Sendak is too fast for Shiro to get in a clean hit. 

 

They kneel on the ground, activated hands at each other's throats, corrupted quintessence in the air. Both men with their teeth bared in snarls. 

 

“Let him go or your friend won't make it!” Shiro looks over to the galra who made the threat. Haxus had Lance and had dumped him on the floor. 

 

Sendak takes advantage of Shiro’s momentary distraction to overpower him, blasting him across the room. Sendak stands in victory.

 

“Voltron is ours.”

 

Sendak, Haxus, and a handful of sentries make their way into the castle unaware that the green paladin of Voltron has observed the entire exchange. 

 

-

 

Keith and Allura arrive to find the Arusians gathered on a hill outside of their village. A village which is currently enveloped in a massive blaze. Keith is quick to take charge of the situation. 

 

“What's happening?”

 

“Look! Attackers!” The Arusian King points towards the center of the village. Keith looks to where he is pointing a sees what looks like galran sentries before a large explosion obscures his view. 

 

“I'll go in for a closer look. Stay here with them.” He tells Allura before jumping down the cliff in front of him. Keith uses his jet pack to slow his decent and carefully makes his way to where he saw the sentries. Dodging the flames, he gets behind a building for cover before getting a closer look. One of the sentries falls to the ground. 

 

“What?” Then another. “Oh, no. They tricked us!” He radio’s Allura. “It was just a diversion to separate us and thin the Castle defenses!”

 

-

 

“Power up the Castle.” Sendak gives the order once the new power crystal is in place. “The lions are all in their bays. Raising particle barrier. Begin launch sequence.”

 

-

 

The particle barrier is just coming down as Keith and Allura reach the castle. They are locked outside. 

 

“We're too late.” Keith is breathing heavily. “No!”

 

“They have control of the Castle. They're taking Voltron!”

 

-

 

“Make contact with Emperor Zarkon.” Haxus complies and a large screen comes up showing the face of Emperor Zarkon. He speaks.

 

“ **Sendak**.”

 

“My mission is complete. I've captured the Altean Castle, along with all of the Voltron lions. I am currently preparing for launch and will be delivering them all to you shortly.”

 

“ **This news is most pleasing. You have done your duty. Vrepit Sa!** ” 

 

“Vrepit Sa!” Sendak turns from the now blank screen. “Haxus, ready the Castle for takeoff.”

 

“Yes, Commander.”

 

-

 

“Can we break through the barrier?” Keith asks while activating his bayard. 

 

“No.” Allura responds. “And whoever has taken the Castle has a crystal, which means they'll be able to fly the ship. We have to stop them.” 

 

“How are we going to do that?” Just as Keith asks, his comm is activated.   


“ **Keith, can you hear me?** ”

 

“Pidge, is that you? Where are you?”

 

“ **I'm inside the Castle. Sendak has taken over and he's preparing for launch. He's got Lance and Shiro**.”

 

“Pidge, listen.” Allura cuts in. “If they've started the launch sequence, then we don't have much time before liftoff to stop it.”

 

“ **What do I have to do**?”

 

“You have to get down to the main engine control panel and disconnect the primary turbine from the central energy chamber. If you can do that, Sendak will have to reset the whole system. That might give us enough time to find a way to stop them.” 

 

-

 

Pidge squeezes his way into one of the lift shafts. “Here, Rover.” He calls the robot over before letting the doors shut behind them. “Okay, Rover, here we go.” Pidge jumps off the ledge and uses his jet pack to make his way down. 

 

-

 

“Run main cluster activation sequence.” Sendak orders.

 

“Activation sequence initiated.” Haxus responds. “Powering up for launch.”

 

-

 

“Okay, Allura, I'm near the turbine. I think it's started.”

 

“ **Then you'll have to hurry.** ” Allura responds over the comms. “ **Cross the catwalk to the main column in the center.** ”

 

Pidge makes his way down to the control terminal. “Okay.”

 

“ **Now, open the hatch. Find the central computer control hub and enter the following sequence**.”

 

Pidge takes one look at the control hub and know that this plan is not going to work. He can’t read any of it. “Wait, wait, wait, wait! Which one is it? All the labels are in Altean!”

 

Just then bolts of energy start steaming into the turbine, the castle begins to launch. Pidge becomes frantic. 

 

“I can't tell which one it is! Allura? Allura?” Communications have been cut off, by what, Pidge doesn’t know but it doesn’t really matter now. 

 

Pidge looks over the entire console, unable to understand anything and running out of time, he makes a decision. 

 

“Whatever.” He activates his bayard and plunges it into the machine. 

 

Pidge is thrown back by the energy surge as a result of his attack. But it works, the engine shuts down. Quickly grabbing his bayard and indicating for Rover to follow, he leaves. 

 

-

 

“The main engine just shorted out!” Haxus reports. 

 

Sendak comes forward to view the security feed of the engine room. The green paladin was just escaping out the doors but Sendak saw.

 

“We have a saboteur. Find him and take him out.” 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello Everyone,  
> Sorry this chapter took my a bit longer to figure out. Everybody split up which made things rather difficult.  
> Just a reminder that if I don't write a scene that doesn't mean it didn't happen it just means that I wouldn't be changing anything about it anyway and I didn't super need it for the flow of the story. 
> 
> So serious question. Is this any good? Are people enjoying it? Is my action writing shit? Cuz it kinda feels like it. Pretty please let me know what you think, it would really help me out.
> 
> Thanks


	15. S1e5 Storming the Castle

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's time to take back the castle!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So originally the episode was called Tears of the Balmera but I'm not writing anything that happened on Hunk and Coran's trip over there so I decided to change the title.

It started out pleasantly warm, dark, blissful. A thousand miles away, it seemed, was the crackling of a fire. Far away memories of the hearth in the Great Hall at home. She felt safe, she must have fallen asleep in front of the fire again in her favorite plush chair. Any moment now her younger brother, James, would come barreling through the doors, eager to share some detail of his day. Or perhaps it would be Araminta ready to shed the cares of the day and relax. Maybe her parents or her best friend and lady-in-waiting, Claire, or any one of the hundred or so people who work in the palace. The Great Hall was never quiet for long.

 

As Daphne continues to muse on the subject bits and pieces of things that shouldn't be begin to flit across her awareness, just out of reach. Something isn't quite right. In an effort to figure out what it is, she attempts to open her eyes. The effort is rewarded only by the fluttering of her eyelids. Why couldn't she open her eyes? Daphne begins to panic.

 

The panic rouses her from the blissful fog. The warmth, once pleasant, was becoming hot, too hot. What happened? Where was she? The answer pushes its way to the front of her mind. 

 

Sendak. 

 

The instant the name hits, everything comes flooding in. The heat is blistering, the pain excruciating. Her eyes fly wide open. Not even registering the inferno in front of her, she vomits from the sheer agony. She starts choking. 

 

She needs to move. Now!

 

With momentous effort she’s able to use one of her legs to push herself over. A fresh wave of hell washes over her when she rolls over obviously broken ribs. Spots dance in her vision as she coughs everything up. She needs to calm herself without taking any deep breaths. So instead she takes little ones. 

 

It takes a minute but Daphne’s able to regain calm and some clarity. She’s able to take the all consuming agony and pinpoint each source. She takes stock of herself before attempting to move again. She starts at the bottom. All of her toes and both of her feet feel fine, she wiggles her toes just to make sure. Both of her legs are covered in cuts and bruises but her left leg has a worryingly painful gash in the thigh. She already found out the hard way that she’s got broken ribs on both sides but she’s unable to tell exactly how many. Her left arm seems mostly alright, more cuts and bruises and the previous injury on her wrist but that’s all. Her right arm, however, she can’t feel below the elbow. 

 

Daphne tries to turn her head to look at it but her neck won’t budge. It’s stiff and sore. Whiplash then. It could be worse though, her neck could have been broken. As for her head, she can feel blood all down her face and her head is pounding but that’s all she can tell without a mirror. 

 

She can’t waste anymore time. The burning village is too hot and too close. She needs to leave now.

 

Ever so carefully she uses her left arm and right leg to push herself up. It’s agony and she screams but doesn’t stop. But when she forces her left leg to support her weight, she does stop. More spots in her vision and the threat of blacking out again keep her still. She stays that way until the fire is nipping at her heels and she has no choice but to flee. 

 

-

 

Day had broken on Arus and the daylight saw Keith and Allura still stranded on the wrong side of the particle barrier. Pidge had managed to sabotage the castle’s launch but not the barrier yet. Allura was still feeling him instructions over the comms unaware that the intruding Galra had picked up their communications. 

 

“There's not much time before they get the ship running again. You must shut off the particle barrier so we can get in.” 

 

“ **You got it. Tell me what to do.** ” Came Pidge’s response, all ready on his way out of the engine room. 

 

“The particle barrier generator is beneath the main hull.” Allura continued to give instructions but Keith had stopped listening. 

 

He was worried. He knew from Pidge that Sendak had captured Lance and Shiro and he worried for the state they were in. Also on his mind was the fact that he hadn’t heard from or been able to find Daphne yet. She had gone missing yesterday evening, it had been half a day since anyone had seen her. There was no way at this point that he could keep telling himself that everything was alright with her. He found himself constantly checking over his shoulder, down the bridge that led to the castle. He was hoping she would show up at any moment. 

 

-

 

Emerging from between the trees, still a fair distance away, Daphne finally caught a glimpse of the castle. She stared in shock. There was the castle encased in a purple particle barrier. Daphne had never thought that a color could look menacing before. 

 

Sendak must have taken control of the castle But then why was it still here? 

 

-

 

Keith is staring out over the bridge again when Allura’s voice grabs his attention.

 

“Pidge, have you made it to the generator room?” Keith listens in for Pidge’s response, trying to focus on the task at hand. 

 

“ **I’m in. This technology is so advanced. I don’t know if I can figure it out.** ”

 

“Yes you can.” Allura urges. “The lives of your fellow paladins are at stake. You can’t give up.” 

 

It’s so frustrating for Keith to be sidelined like this. He’s stuck outside of the particle barrier unable to get to Sendak or Shiro and he can’t leave Allura to go look for Daphne because the barrier could come down at any second and he’ll need to be able to rush in. He can only look and listen, it’s maddening. He takes a deep breath. ‘Patience yields focus’ as Shiro would say.

 

“ **Okay. Talk me through it, Allura.** ”

 

“Shutting down the barrier from this room can be dangerous. Remember, the barrier is also a weapon. So, stay away from the energy arcs.” Allura warns. 

 

“ **Don't touch the giant lightning bolts. Got it.** ” Pidge acknowledges. 

 

“Now, what I'm going to need you to do is-” Allura is cut off by Pidge’s scream.

 

“Pidge! Hello? Are you there? Pidge, what's going on?” But Allura receives no response. She frowns. Keith and Allura look at each other for a moment. What are they going to do? Then Allura gets and idea.

 

“Wait the mice. Maybe they can help.” Allura closes her eyes and focuses. 

 

Keith just looks at her. What are the mice going to be able to do?

 

-

 

Daphne’s left leg does not want to bear her weight anymore but she forces it to. She has to make it back to the castle. She has to make it back to Shiro and Keith. There is no other option, anything else is unthinkable. 

 

-

 

Keith and Allura anxiously wait for something to happen. Allura explained to Keith her ability to communicate telepathically with the mice but that it didn’t go the other way very well so she had no idea what the mice were actually doing. They hadn’t been able to re-establish communications with Pidge either. 

 

They were in the dark. All they could do was keep ready to jump in the second the barrier goes down. Keith hates waiting. He throws another glance over his shoulder. 

 

-

 

Pidge is standing by the ledge that Haxus and Rover had just disappeared over when the control panel beside him flickers to life with a transmission from the bridge of the castle.  

 

“ **Haxus, report in.** ” Sendak’s voice orders.

 

Pidge runs to the panel. “Haxus is gone, and you're next!” He yells, anger fueled by the loss of Rover only a moment before. 

 

“ **You've slowed me down, but this ship is mine! You will turn yourself over to me immediately** !”

 

“Never!”

 

“ **Well, then, maybe your leader can convince you.** ”

 

“ **What do you want?** ” Shiro’s voice comes over the transmission. Pidge’s eyes widen, realizing what Sendak intends to do. 

 

“ **Your friend wanted to hear from you.** ”

 

“Shiro?” 

 

“ **Pidge? Pidge, don't listen to-** ” Shiro’s warning is cut off by the sound of his screams.

 

“No!” 

 

“ **You can make it stop.** ” Shiro’s screams fade from the transmission. Sendak continues. “ **Turn yourself in. His suffering is in your hands.** ”

 

Pidge makes a break for the bridge.

 

-

 

She’s so close now, she can see bits of the castle through the trees. The base of the bridge leading to the castle in just feet in front of her. She can make it despite the threatening spots in her eyes. She has to make it. She has to.

 

She stumbles at the beginning of the bridge. Looking up through her fading vision she sees the purple barrier begin to fall. A strange and incomplete feeling of relief comes to her just as her vision fades to black. 

-

 

Keith is looking down the span of the bridge, he can’t quite tell but it looks like something is moving all the way at the end. He takes a tentative step away from the barrier when he hears the tell-tale sound of something powering down. He turns to find the particle barrier disappearing. Movement forgotten he calls out to Allura.

 

“It worked.”

 

She cheers. “They did it.”

 

They start running back inside to take back the castle.

 

-

 

After sending Sendak down the hall in pursuit of a hologram, Pidge comes running onto the bridge.

 

“Shiro, wake up. It's me, Pidge.” He barely gets the words out before a giant hand comes and grabs him from behind. He’s pulled up and back towards the hands owner.

 

“You really thought your little hologram trick would work with me?” Sendak asks. Then movement in the corner of his eye catches his attention. He turns his head to see the red paladin and the princess running into the room. 

 

Keith draws his bayard. 

 

“Stand back!” Sendak demands, holding Pidge aloft, when suddenly he is shot from behind. 

 

Lance had managed to regain consciousness for long enough to draw his bayard and fire. The force from the shot and the distraction it caused allowed Pidge to escape from Sendak’s grip. 

 

Shiro charges, but with his hands still bound behind his back Sendak is easily able to punch him out of the fray. Keith comes running in and manages to land a hit on Sendak’s natural arm but his armor manages to prevent much damage. Undeterred, he kicks Sendak down and swings for the head.

 

Sendak blocks, getting behind Keith, he is able to grab him and throws that arm with Keith in its grip across the room. But that leaves the energy beam from his arm vulnerable to attack. 

 

Pidge sweeps in with his bayard severing the beam.

 

“No!” Sendak screams. He charges. Pidge and Keith do their best to take Sendak down while Allura runs to a control panel. Keith takes another swipe at Sendak who catches the blade in his natural hand. They struggle for control. 

 

“Keith, now!” Allura calls. 

 

A force field powers up under Keith’s feet. He jumps and uses his entire body to kick Sendak back into the field just as it goes up, trapping him inside. Sendak tries to punch his way free but it's no use. 

 

-

 

After neutralizing Sendak, freeing Shiro, and checking on Lance, Keith remembers Daphne. 

 

“We need to find Daphne, now.”

 

“Yes, you’re right.” Allura turns to Keith. “It's been nearly 10 vargas since anyone has seen her.” 

 

Shiro, who had until this moment been looking over Lance, came over to join the conversation. “Does anyone know where to start looking for her? It there any way the castle or the lions could locate her?” 

 

“It is unlikely that the lions would be able to find her any better than we could.” Allura answers. “They don’t have a bond with her that they could track. As for the castle, I don’t think we should be using the Galran crystal. It could contaminate the ship. We need the healing pods to be operational as soon as Coran and Hunk return from the Balmera.”

 

“Wait.” Keith says, grabbing everyone's attention. “When Allura and I were outside, right before the barrier came down, I saw something moving at the end of the bridge. We have to go check it out. What if it was Daphne?” 

 

“Ok.” Shiro responds. “You and I will go take a look.”

 

“Pidge and I will stay here and get everything ready for Coran’s arrival with the crystal.” 

 

“Thank you Allura. Let’s go, Keith.” 

 

-

 

From the castle doors it's too far to the end of the bridge to see anything but they start running nonetheless. About halfway down to the end they encounter a broken section of the bridge. They activate their jet packs to span the distance easily but by this point they can see something lying at the foot of the bridge. 

 

As soon as he touches down on the other side of the gap, Keith speaks. “Shiro, look.”

 

“I see it.” He responds. “Come on.” And Shiro picks up the pace. 

 

Another quarter of the way down the bridge is another broken section. By this point they can see the black form with a red mop of hair. There isn’t any movement.

 

“Shiro.” Keith says again, a note of panic is his voice. They are thinking the same thing. They are both wondering if they are too late. Shiro doesn’t respond this time only increases his speed once more. Keith follow suit. 

 

As they get closer Keith calls out. “Daphne!” No response.

 

Shiro makes it to her first. She doesn’t look good. Kneeling down and pushing aside his deep sense of dread, he looks for life signs. “Daphne? Daphne!.” Nothing.

 

Keith comes up behind him.

 

“Oh my god!” He pauses for a moment, then quietly, “Is she dead?”

 

Shiro looks closely for any sign that she’s breathing. He’s almost too scared to touch her to check for a pulse. He shakes his head, clearing it of his personal feelings. She needs him to focus now. Finally he sees the tiniest rise and fall of her chest. She’s breathing, if only just.

 

“No.” Shiro responds, relief evident in his voice. “She’s breathing.” He looks up at Keith. “Radio Allura and tell her to have a pod ready for Daphne as soon as we get back. She’s in critical condition.” Keith nods and takes a step away to call Allura.

 

Shiro turns back to the girl on the ground and searches for a pulse. While he does that he also is taking visible stock of her injuries. They are extensive and she’s covered in blood but what worries him most are the injuries he can’t see. Moving her is going to hurt her.

 

“Shiro, Allura said there will be a pod ready and Hunk and Coran just returned with a crystal.” He looks at Daphne again, concern and doubt written all over his face. “Are we going to be able to move her?”

 

“We are going to have to.” Shiro takes half a moment to steel himself against the task of moving her. “I'm sorry, Daphne.” He whispers before moving to get his arms underneath.

 

“Shiro?” Comes the ghost of a reply that he is almost lost in the groan of pain at being moved. 

 

“Daphne? Can you hear me?” No response. “I’m sorry, I need to move you, this is going to hurt but I have to do it.” She makes no indication of consciousness. “I’m sorry.” He says one more time before picking her up and gently as possible.

 

She screams anyway. 

 

Keith startles at the sound, fully believing her to have been unconscious. Shiro grunts in discomfort. “Let me carry her Shiro. Your injured from your fight with Sendak.”

 

“I don’t want to have to move her any more than necessary.” He starts moving towards the castle but by the time they make it to the first broken section of the bridge, Shiro has to admit defeat. 

 

“You are going to hurt yourself trying to make the jump while carrying her.” Keith argues again. “Let me take her for you.”

 

“Alright.” Shiro concedes “But please be careful. Even though she’s out cold, she is clearly still in pain.” 

 

Keith nods and takes Daphne from him as gently as possible. She still makes noises of pain during the transfer and through their entire trip back to the castle despite all of Keith’s efforts to keep her still. 

 

They make it back to the castle and head straight to the infirmary where Pidge and Allura are waiting. Lance is already in a pod. Allura gasps in shock at the sight.

 

“Oh my god!” Pidge exclaims.

 

“Help me get her into a pod.” Keith says, looking at Allura and Pidge.

 

“I don’t think it would be the wisest decision to try and put her in one of the pod suits.” Allura decides. “She looks too injured to be moved in that way.”

 

Shiro turns to Allura. “Can the pods even heal this amount of damage?” He asks, afraid of what the answer might be.

 

“Yes.” The princess says almost confidently. “It will take some time but she should be perfectly fine.”  She moves to help Keith place Daphne in a pod then seals it up. “In a few doboshes the pod will be able to tell us how long she’ll need to be in there.” Allura takes a moment to stop and look at the pod before moving back to the control panel in the middle of the room. 

 

“How long will Lance be in there?” Pidge asks having given up on trying to read the information for himself. 

 

“After a day in here, he should be fully healed.” Allura taps the console a few more times, waiting for the information on Daphne to appear. In addition to healing time, the pods also usually gave an inventory of what was wrong with it’s occupant. Lance’s list had been extensive but nothing the pod couldn’t handle. 

 

“Pidge.” Shiro said, redirecting everyone's attention. “We can't thank you enough for all you did.

 

I can't help but feel that you were meant to be a part of our team but I understand if you want to leave.” He really hoped that despite his words, Pidge would want to remain with the team. 

 

“Dad used to tell me how close he was with his crew members. They were like family.” Shiro smiled as Pidge continued. “Now, I understand what he was talking about. I'm staying with you guys. Let's stop Zarkon for all of our families.” At that announcement Keith and Allura smiled as well. Keith spoke. 

 

“Good to have you back on the team.” Pidge smiled.

 

Just then the console at Allura’s side beep with Daphne’s injury inventory and expected recovery time. 

 

“Oh my.” Allura was absolutely floored by the information on the screen.

 

“What is it?” Shiro crowded around the screen headless of the fact that he couldn’t read it. 

 

“This.” Allura said pointing to the list. “Is a list of all of her injuries. It is quite extensive.” Glancing around the room at everyone’s faces she realized that this what not what they needed to hear. From what Allura had gathered, not all of the paladins had known each other before coming to space. They had all come from the same place but friends or even acquaintances, they were not. These three, however, had actually known Daphne before. Whether it had been a working relationship or something more, again Allura didn’t know specifics. But, she noted, you would have to be blind to miss the way Shiro, Keith and Daphne interacted. They obviously cared greatly for each other but hadn’t quite figured out what to do with that yet. In an effort to reassure she looked for a time to give them for Daphne’s recovery but what she found wasn’t that simple. 

 

Keith was agitated. He paced over to Daphne’s pod then looked back at Shiro and Allura. “How long is she going to be in there?”

 

Allura shook her head. “I don’t know.”

 

“What do you mean you don’t know? Doesn’t it tell you? It told you how long Lance would be.” 

 

“I am sorry Keith, I don’t know. I don’t understand what the pod is telling me.” She turned to Pidge. “Can you go get Coran and send him back here please?” Pidge nodded before running out the door. 

 

A soft glow coming from behind Keith caught his attention. Turning around his breath caught in his throat. “Shiro.” He called.

 

The tone of Keith’s voice caught Shiro’s attention. “Keith, what- why is the pod glowing?”

 

Before Allura could answer Keith spoke. “The pod isn’t glowing, Daphne is.”

 

“What?” Shiro hadn’t expected to hear that. He rushed forward to asses Keith’s claims for himself. He also hadn’t expected glowing marks on her face that resembled the ones had by their Altean friends. Hearing about it happening once from Allura and seeing it for himself were two very different things. 

 

“She’s doing it again.” Allura’s voice came from behind Keith.

 

Just then Coran burst into the room without Pidge. “Princess, what is it?”

 

“Look.” Allura makes room for him around Daphne’s pod. “She’s glowing again.”

 

As they looked on, the glow got brighter. It was a little disconcerting to see her irises glowing from behind her eyelids. Allura and Coran hurried back to the console and tried pressing various buttons. Meanwhile the glow started to spread, moving out from her cheeks and eyes to coming off of her entire body. The glow was still most concentrated on her face but it was growing with every passing moment. 

 

Shiro and Keith looked on with mild horror and fascination as they watched her body knit itself back together in the places she had open wounds. A sound startled them, looking up they noticed her face scrunched up in pain as she continued to groan.

 

“She’s in pain! Do something!” Keith rounded on Coran and Allura. “Make it stop.” 

 

“We can’t.” Coran responded. “If we turn it off now, she will most likely die.”

 

“Then what do we do, Coran.” Shiro stepped forward, putting a hand on Keith’s shoulder to ground him. 

 

“Well” Coran begins, stroking his mustache. “I’ve only ever seen something like this twice before and both times we just had to let it happen.” He walks up to Daphne’s pod, studying her. “I have good news and bad news..” He turned to them. 

 

Shiro was wary at that statement, last time he had said something to that effect it was mostly very bad news. Coran continued.

 

“Good news, Princess Daphne will be just fine. Bad news, this process seems to be a very painful one. Good news again, it won’t take very long at all, maybe a varga. And a bonus piece of good news, if it's anything like the other two times I’ve seen this happen, she won’t remember her time in the pod at all.” 

 

“Coran, when have you seen this before?” Allura asks. Coran turns to her a bit of an apologetic look on his face.

 

“I once saw it happen to your father, King Alfor, after a particularly bad battle before Voltron. The other time it was you, Princess. You were hardly five deca-pheobes old, no one knows exactly what happened to you as you had wandered off to play. Everyone was looking for you, it took us several vargas before your father found you, badly injured, but with no idea how it could have happened. You were unconscious when he brought you here, we put you in a pod and in short order you started to glow. When the pod cycle finished you slept for nearly a quintant. Afterwards you had no memory of being in the pod or what happened to make you need one in the first place.” 

 

After being reassured by Coran, Keith and Shiro had calmed down somewhat. Eventually the princess and Coran had to leave to repair parts of the ship that had been damaged during the galra occupation. Keith and Shiro continued to wait. 

 

True to expectation, the pod opened approximately a varga later. Daphne stumbled out into Shiro’s and Keith’s waiting arms. Her skin was angry red where wounds had healed and covered in blood and dirt. Unable to stay on her own feet and hardly able to stay conscious, the two boys took her back to her room, helped clean her as best as they could, and put her to bed. After making sure she was sound asleep and still breathing both boys had to force themselves from the room to assist with castle repairs.

 

-

 

Later, as the castle was entering it’s night cycle, Shiro went to check on Daphne. She was fast asleep, just like when he had left her earlier. Shiro really should have made his way back to his own room for the night, but considering the events of the past few days, he didn’t want to leave her alone. Grabbing a chair from across the room, Shiro dragged it over next to Daphne’s bed to settle in for the night. 

 

And that’s where hr woke up the next morning with a crick in his neck and wide, blue-green eyes staring right at him. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So sorry this took so long but it's here now so I hope you enjoy. Please, please, please comment what you think. I could really use some feedback to help me improve my writing.
> 
> Also happy birthday to me! I took the day off of work and got this done.
> 
> "Bye Bye Boys!"  
> "Have fun storming the castle!"  
> "Do you think it will work?"  
> "It would take a miracle."


	16. S1e6 Taking Flight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After finally departing planet Arus, the paladins and company are on their way to the Balmera when they encounter a distress beacon. Who's there? What do they want? Why does Lance fall for such an obvious line? Does he need more genuine love and affection is his life? 
> 
> But most importantly... "Coran what in the hell does a pogo stick have to do with the ship!?" Daphne may never know.

“You disappeared in space for a year but I can't get my ass kicked by a fluffy purple alien?” Daphne was feeling all sorts of things. This was not a fun or comfortable experience.

 

Shiro pinch the bridge of his nose, near his wit's end. He knew Daphne was upset about something and he knew it wasn't what they were presently arguing about. They were both pretty emotionally charged right now so their conversation had been getting nowhere fast. Shiro decided to respond in earnest, hoping to deescalate the situation.

 

“Daphne when you disappeared from the castle I was worried. And when I saw you, after Sendak's attack, broken and bloody on the ground, I thought you were dead.” She blinked at him for half a second, just enough time to make him think that he had succeeded, then she exploded.

 

“You disappeared into space, Shiro! Before we knew aliens existed, something going wrong in space was a death sentence. I thought you died in space, I thought you died well out of my reach and that I'd never see you again.” She was still angry but after the initial explosion some of the energy had been redirected into tears. Shiro stepped forward and wrapped the girl into a hug. She pushed against his chest, not really resisting him but just not quite done with letting everything out yet.

 

“They announced the mission disappearance and your death in the most cold, detached, manner possible and they blamed you for it. They called it pilot error! They lied to us for a year and they would have kept lying to us.” Daphne pulled back a bit to look Shiro in the eye. The look she gives him is part utter hopeless despair and part cold and dead. Shiro never wants to see that look on her face again. She continues.

 

“But the worst part was knowing for ages that something was going to happen, knowing something was going to go wrong and thinking that you were going to die and not being able to do anything about it.” Shiro feels that information settle over his heart like an anvil.

 

“How long?” His voice comes out as barely a whisper.

 

Her response comes out even smaller. “About a month before the launch.”

 

Shiro felt his heart break. “Daphne I'm so sorry.” suddenly her strange behavior before his mission made sense. And she had been carrying this around for so long.

 

“I thought you were dead and I had to deal with it three times over, so when I got the premonition before Sendak attacked, I got scared. There is no way I could face losing you again, it would destroy me. I can't lose you again Shiro.” And because she was still riding this roller coaster of a day she decided to ride it a little further. Pulling an arm free of his embrace, she reached up to the back of his neck. When he pulled his head back to look at her she pushed herself onto her tiptoes, pulling down a bit on the back of his neck, and kissed him.

 

He responded to the kiss but before it could become anything serious, he pulled away.

 

“Daphne we can't.” He looks so conflicted.

 

“Yes we can, Shiro.” She wasn't going to let him out of this so easily.

 

“We can't do this.” He tried again.

 

“Why not?” She asked without really asking. “Age is no longer an issue, I turned 18 two months after your mission launched. You are no longer my Commander because I’m no longer a cadet. Same goes for any teacher-student issues. And I'm not going to accept ‘we're at war’ as an excuse. So what is it?”

 

Shiro didn't speak for a moment giving Daphne's confidence time to spiral into self-doubt. “Unless you don't want to that is. I totally understand.” She started to try and remove herself from his embrace, embarrassed.

 

In response Shiro tightened his grip, crushing the girl to his chest. It was taking him a moment to find his words, to figure out why they can't because, well, he really wanted to.

 

“I’m 25.”

 

“Don’t care.”

 

“I'm a Commander and your-”

 

“Not a Cadet." She cut him off. "A princess, a perfectly acceptable match.”

 

“I'm not entirely human anymore. I hurt you, Daphne. The things I've seen, the things I've done…” She can't see the look on his face but she can hear the pain in his voice. She takes a deep breath before speaking, there was a lot to unpack in that statement.

 

“Shiro, I'm sorry they took your arm.” She started carefully, this was the first time they were directly discussing this. “I can't imagine what it must have been like to have been a prisoner of the Galra. The things you saw, the things they made you do, the things they did to you. None of that defines who you are though. An arm isn't what makes you human. It isn't what makes you Takashi Shirogane. That's in your heart and soul. No Galra or piece of galra tech can change that. You aren't less than human, you aren't broken in any way. You made it out the other side. You survived and I admire you for that.”

 

They were still clinging tightly to one another, not letting go for the world. Daphne waited for Shiro to speak, letting him take all the time he needed. When he finally did speak it wasn't entirely unexpected.

 

“But I hurt you. What if I do it again?”

 

“It was an accident and it was my fault. I know now to be more careful next time I try and wake you from a nightmare.” Daphne forces him to look her squarely in the eyes. “You would never hurt me on purpose, I know that. And I know you are scared of hurting me by accident but you won’t. You are the master of that arm, not the other way around.” She paused for a moment, looking deep into his eyes, making sure that her next statement would have the intended impact. With determination and conviction she clearly stated her final point. “Shiro, I am not afraid of you.” 

 

Silence while her processed her words. Then he deflated a little bit.

 

“But we're at war.” He said with absolutely no conviction in his voice and buried his face in the crook of her neck, hiding from her. 

 

Daphne laughed weekly. “I already told you I wouldn't accept that as an excuse.” She pulled his face out of her neck to look him in the eyes again. “Are you out of excuses yet?”

 

Shiro nodded slightly. “I can't think of any other reason why not but I feel like we shouldn't.”

 

Daphne, sensing victory, moved her face in a bit closer. “Do you want to?” A simple question requiring only a simple answer.

 

“Yes, but-”

 

“No but's then. Just yes.” She moved very slowly this time, telegraphing her actions. She reached up placing one of her hands on the side of Shiro's face. Making eye contact, Daphne moved in until his eyes gave her permission to continue. Permission received she closed her eyes and move the rest of the way in for a kiss.

 

Their second ever kiss was less frantic but no less intense than the first. Longer too, this time neither one of them pulled away for several seconds. They savoured each other and the situation until they broke apart, Daphne being the one to pull back this time. 

 

-

 

All of the occupants of the Castle of Lions, with the exception of Coran, were huddled around Lance’s cryo-pod. Knowing the Lance was due to wake up soon, Daphne and Shiro had departed from her room a few minutes ago to join the rest of the team. Their conversation was unfinished to say the least, but Shiro had insisted on being there for his team and Daphne couldn’t argue with that. 

 

Hunk leaned forward to get a better look. “I can't tell if he looks healthy or not.”

 

Pidge, who already had his face smashed against the glass, put in his two cents. “I think he's breathing weird.”

 

“Oh, come on!” Keith groans and reaches for the control panel but Allura slaps his hand away.

 

“Not yet! A few more ticks.” She chastizes him.

 

“How much better do you think he's gonna get in a few more ticks?” But before Allura can produce an answer to that question, Pidge poses another.

 

“And what exactly is a tick?”

 

“You know, a time slice.”

 

“Like a second?” Shiro asks. Allura turns to face him.

“What is a ‘second’?”

“Like this.” Pidge says and produces a tablet clock thing with a timer on it. It beeps out a few seconds before Allura speaks again. 

“I'm not sure. I think ticks are bigger.” She turns her head towards the man at the console. “Coran, do you have a ticker?”

“Right here, Princess.” He responds, pulling a blue and silver hand-held device from his jacket. It also begins to beep and lights up in a counterclockwise motion. 

 

Everyone moves to stand around Pidge and Coran with the timing devices. Everyone but Daphne who stayed by the pod to make sure Lance wouldn’t fall on his face when he got out. 

 

“I think ticks are a little slower.” Hunk says. Pidge isn’t quite so sure.

 

“I can't tell.” He looks between the devices again, trying to compare them. “We have to start them at the same time.”

 

“Okay.” Coran says. “Ready, go!” At this point even Keith has moved in to watch closely. 

 

As they started the clocks, Daphne’s attention moves back to the pod in front of her. It makes her uncomfortable for some reason. It makes her skin crawl, but before she can think too much about it, the pod begins to open and Lance begins to fall out. She grabs him under the arm and helps to guide him towards the group who still seem to be engaged in their time competition. 

 

It takes them a second to notice but after Lance announced his presence, attention shifts from the clocks to him. After a particularly big bear hug from Hunk, Lance seems to regain some of his wits.

 

“What happened?”

 

“We can tell you all about it while you get something to eat.” Allura offers. “Are you able to walk?” 

 

“Talking? Eating? Are you asking me out on a date?”

 

The collective groan and exclamations at Lance’s antics but the consensus is that he’s fine. Eventually they all make their way to the dining room. 

 

-

 

“Wow. Thanks, everybody.” Lance said while feeding the mice a spoon full of goo. He turned to Keith. “Sounds like the mice did more than you, though.”

 

“I punched Sendak!” Keith defended himself. Daphne smiled.

 

“Yeah, apparently after I emerged from a coma and shot his arm off.” Lance shoots back.

 

“We had a bonding moment. I cradled you in my arms!” Keith looks so stricken that Daphne starts cracking up. 

 

“Nope. Don't remember, didn't happen.” Daphne’s continued laughter at the boy’s antics attracted Lance’s attention. “Oh and what did you do, Ms. Laugh-A-Lot? Right now it sounds like you did even less than Keith!” 

 

Daphne took a second to finish laughing. When she does, she notices that there are a lot of pairs of eyes on her. She realizes that at this point, on one knows what she was up to during the time frame in question. Not even her, at least not really. She has some fuzzy ideas and vague memories of intense pain but the human brain has a way of blocking those things out and shes not too eager to remember more pain anyway. But everyone is still waiting for an answer so she does her best to come up with one. 

 

“Well, the details are a little fuzzy because I almost died but…” She tries to keep her tone light and joking but she notices Shiro cringe a bit and Keith’s scowl deepen nonetheless. “...It seems I tried to fight Sendak one-on-one… with mixed results.” Daphne tries to give everyone a little smile, a bit uncomfortable with the way everyone is staring at her. After a moment of silence Lance is the first to speak. 

 

“You did what!?” He looks stunned, maybe even slightly impressed.

 

“Mixed results?” Shiro asks, eyebrows raised high. 

 

“Yeah!” Daphne jumps to defend herself, face scrunched up trying to remember the fight. “I know I got a hit in, at least one.” Her face scrunches up further. “I- I think I got one of my knives stuck in his neck… maybe. Don't get me wrong, he definitly kicked my ass, but it took him a couple of tries." 

 

“So, what happened to Sendak?” Lance asks.

 

“He's frozen in a cryo-pod.” Allura answers. The conversation shifts away from Daphne again. “We're keeping him here in the Castle.”

 

“Are you sure that's a good idea?”

 

“He's too dangerous to be set free.” Allura reasons. “Besides, we might be able to get some information about Zarkon from him.”

 

Lance seems to accept this as an answer and moves on to his next question. “So, what's the plan now?”

 

But before Allura can respond, Hunk jumps in. “We have to get back to the Balmera and save Shay and her people.”

 

“Wow! You are really hung up on this lady.” Lance observed. 

 

“No, it's not like that.” Hunk was quick to defend himself. 

 

“Look guys, when you see how Zarkon has treated these people and destroyed their home they've been under his thumb for so long, they don't know what it is to be free.” hunk looks at each one of them in turn. “It's up to us to set this right. This is what being a paladin of Voltron is all about. It's time to man up.”

 

Shiro takes the momentum of Hunk’s speech to get everyone going. “Then let's get moving.  Time to go defend the universe.”

 

As they all begin to file out of the dining room, Pidge speaks up.

 

“Wait, I have something to say first. I need to come clean and I'm afraid this may change the way you all think of me.” Everyone turns to Pidge. “Just so there are no secrets between us anymore, I can't ‘man up.’ I'm a girl. I mean, I can ‘man up’ because that's just a figure of speech. I don't have to actually be a man to ‘man up’. I just have to be tough. But what I'm saying--” But before Pidge can continue, a screech from Lance cuts her off. 

 

“What? You're a girl? How?” Ignoring Lance’s outburst, the rest of the group began to respond. Allura went first.

 

“I've known for some time, but I'm glad you've shared it with everyone.”

 

To Daphne's surprise everyone else seemed to know too. 

 

“Yeah, I figured.” Hunk says. He’s followed by Keith.

 

“Oh, yeah, me too.”

 

Then even Coran speaks up. “Wait, we were supposed to think you were a boy?”

 

Daphne face palms.

 

“Pidge.” Shiro interjected. “Owning who you are is going to make you a better paladin.” Daphne was at least pretty sure he had only figured it out a few days ago on the Galra ship.

 

Pidge visibly relaxed. “It's good to get that off my chest.”

 

“Well.” Daphne starts. “Iverson must be dumber than a pile of rocks if he fell for our trick for months but these guys figured it out in a few days.” Daphne smiled, Pidge outright laughed. 

 

“Now, let's launch this Castle-ship!” Pidge calls as she runs out of the room, ready to get moving towards a new chapter with Voltron.

 

“Wait, what?” Lance cries again. “ Pidge is a girl and the Castle is a ship? How long have I been out?”

 

Daphne turns to answer him with a smirk. “A lot longer than I was.” Then she hurries off after the others leaving Lance alone in the dining room with his jaw practically hitting the floor. 

 

-

 

After the castle-ship had been launched and their course set for the Balmera. Daphne moved to join her friends over to the side of the bridge where Hunk was in the process of over thinking things. 

 

“Okay. So, when we get there, what do you think? Do we just roll up and start blasting? Or do we land and have some kind of public address system, like, ‘Attention, Galras, this is Voltron.  Turn yourselves in’?” He stops and looks around at the group. Noticing the looks on their faces he deflates slightly. “No. Blasting, right?”

 

Keith is the first one to answer him. “Hunk, calm down. And, yes, blasting.”

 

Shiro smiles. “It's our first big rescue mission. He's excited.” 

 

Pidge practically bends over backwards from her seat on the steps to stare at Hunk. “Excited to see his new girlfriend.” 

 

“She's not my girlfriend!” Hunk is quick to respond to the taunt. “She's just a rock that I met and I admire very much.”

 

But before that conversation can go any further an alarm begins to sound. Shiro is the first to action. 

 

“What is it? Are we being attacked?”

 

“No.” Coran responds. “It seems to be a distress beacon.”

 

“It's coming from a nearby moon.” Allura supplies. “Apparently, a ship has lost power.” 

 

Daphne moves over towards Allura’s command station to get a better look at what’s going on. She hears Hunk behind her. She turns to look at him. 

 

“Whoever it is will have to wait.” He starts. “Shay has first priority. We can check back on them when we're done.”

 

But Allura is not fond of the idea. “The Paladin Code states that we must help all those in need.”

 

“Wow!” Lance exclaims, totally oblivious to the previous interaction. “This is so cool. It's like we're space cops on space patrol.” Then an idea hit him. “Coran, do we have a siren we can turn on?” A truly awful idea.

 

“Uh, no, but we could record you making a siren noise and broadcast that to them.” Why Coran, why?

 

“Perfect!” And then he starts making a truly god awful siren noise for just a moment before Shiro slaps a hand over his mouth. 

 

“No, not doing that.” Daphne loved that man. 

 

-

 

Once they had arrived at the location of the distress signal Allura ordered Coran to stay on board and clear out what galra crystal energy he could. She went to go check out the situation with the paladins. Daphne opted to remain on board to help Coran. A decision she was now regretting. 

 

“All right, Coran, I think I’ve _helped_ enough.” Daphne made sure to put heavy sarcastic emphasis on the word ‘helped’. “All I’ve managed to do is hand you the wrong tool like 5 times and get electrocuted by the pogo-stick-ocolator-thing. Which you said shouldn’t even have had a current running through it to begin with.” 

 

Coran gave the girl a sheepish smile. “Perhaps it would be for the best if you found something else to occupy yourself with, Princess.” Then the corner of his mouth and mustache turned down in thought. “It was quite impressive how you managed to get shocked by a deactivated pogo-ocolator.”

 

“Yep!” Daphne got up from her place on the floor and dusted her hands on her pants. “So, on that note, I’m just going to go. Bye Coran.”

 

“Bye Princess.” But she was already out the door.

 

-

 

Shiro was standing around the fire with Allura and Keith and talking with Rolo when Hunk returned with the spare parts for Rolo’s ship.

 

“Well I hope there are some parts in here that’ll fit.” He paused for a moment and when no one moved he continued. “You know, to get your ship moving?” 

 

“Great.” Rolo waved. “Thanks.” But again, no one moved from around the fire.

 

“So, what can you tell us about Zarkon's forces?” Allura asked, returning her attention to Rolo. “Where are they concentrated?”

 

“Well, his command ship sits right in the center of the Empire. He mostly calls the shots from there and has his minions do the work, depending on who's closest.” Rolo turned away, looking out into the distance and the space beyond. “This is the territory of a real nasty bugger named Sendak.”

 

“Oh, we've met.” Keith said, vividly remembering fighting on the bridge of the Castle of Lions and the cryo-frozen alien the castle currently contained. 

 

“How far are we from the center?” Shiro asked, brain already forming maps, troop overlays, and battle strategies. 

 

“We're way out on the fringes.” Rolo began. But before any more information could be given or questions asked, Hunk decided to approach the group. 

 

“Sorry to interrupt, but I think you guys are kind of keeping Rolo from working.” But Hunk being Hunk, could not just be rude, despite the fact that he did not like this Rolo guy. “It's just that we're in a hurry.” He offered. “A hero named Shay saved my life, and I swore I would return to do the same for her and her people. You understand.”

 

“Sure.” Rolo stood and put a hand on Hunk’s shoulder. “Sorry.” He walked over to the parts Hunk had brought and began to inspect them.

 

“Hunk.” Shiro approached the yellow paladin. “We're going to get going soon, but I think Rolo might have some information that could be helpful to us.”

 

“Not for nothing but I don't trust this guy as far as I can throw him. We ought to leave him with parts and just say, ‘Adiós, amigo’.”

 

"Hey, bud!” Rolo called from the supply bin. “Sorry, but do you think you could hunt down a length of thermal pipe about yay long?”

 

Hunk groans but does as he’s asked. “On the way.” If he wants to get off this moon and go help Shay he needs to play nice enough and get this ship fixed. 

 

Just as Hunk turned to walk back to the castle, Shiro’s comm crackled to life.

 

“ **Shiro?** ” Daphne’s voice entered his helmet. She sounded a little off to him, even from just the one word.

 

“I’m here, Daphne. What is it? Is everything OK?”

 

“ **Yes, everything is fine. I was just wondering if you needed any extra hands on the ground?** ” 

 

“No, I think we’ve got everything more than covered here.” Shiro took a look around him at everybody but Hunk slacking off. Allura and Keith were still by the fire, unsure as of yet how to help Rolo. Lance was making a fool of himself with Nyma, but it seemed harmless enough so Shiro didn’t stop him. Pidge on the other hand was terrorizing the poor cyber-unit. She had been running around chasing it, poking it, and just all out harassing it since they got here. Although they seemed to be getting along a little better now. He turned his attention back to Daphne. “What happened? I thought you were helping Coran?”

 

“ **Well that didn’t pan out so well so I’m not doing that anymore?** ” 

 

Shiro chuckled softly. “I’m sorry to hear that. And sorry I don’t have anything here for you. But I’m sure you’ll be able to find something to do.” 

 

“ **Yeah, ok. I’ll talk to you later.** ” And the line went dead again. 

 

Shiro turned back towards the fire and Rolo. “So, are there more freedom fighters? Any kind of organized resistance to the Galra?”

 

-

 

Daphne poked her head through the door. The last time she had been here was on the eve of their first battle with the Galra. Had that really been less than a week since then? Then she had remained in the hall while Princess Allura had met with the computer generated image of her father. This time Daphne would enter herself. She had some questions that the last king of Altea may be able to shed some light on. 

 

Daphne stepped into the room and proceeded to the raised console in the center. About halfway there, the computer woke. It created the same beautiful landscape of the last time, lush green grass like coverage and beautiful pink flowers. Daphne had to assume that it was Altea. When she was a few steps from the console the image of King Alfor flickered to life. Daphne bowed.

 

“King Alfor, I am Princess Daphne of Lothirwen.”

 

“Rise child. What is it I can help you with?” Alfor smiled warmly. 

 

Daphne paused a moment before speaking, unsure of how to ask her questions.

 

“How did Alteans come to possess magical abilities?”

 

“Are you referring to the manipulation of quintessence?” When Daphne nods, he continues. “No one knows for sure how the first Alteans gained these abilities or realized them. There are legends of course, but they are just that, legends.” 

 

“Legends typically spring from truth.” Something in Alfor’s eyes changed at that, as if he knew just how right she was. Observing the change, Daphne pressed on. “If it wouldn’t be too much trouble, I would like very much to hear these legends.”

 

“I would be delighted to, however, before I do, why do you want to know?” 

 

“Well,” Daphne started, not entirely sure how to proceed. “I have had some odd experiences since arriving at the Castle of Lions and even before then. I’ve demonstrated abilities that humans, as a general rule, don’t have.” 

 

“I see.” My daughter has told me some of what has happened in recent days. She mentioned glowing eyes and Altean marks but I see no marks on you now.”

 

Daphne shook her head. “DNA scans show that I’m only human but I’m able to sense the future and people’s individual energies. And when Princess Allura and I touched I saw the future. That’s never happened to me before.” Daphne stared down at her hands as if questioning the very memory. 

 

“I cannot speak to your unique abilities but I can tell you that many beings and races have interacted with quintessence since the beginning of the universe. Not just Alteans. Perhaps humans have had the ability to interact with quintessence all along and simply haven’t been able to realize or name it.”

 

“Perhaps. Human history is littered with ‘witch’ hunts and people claiming to have strange abilities.” Daphne muses, not entirely sure what to think. 

 

“Perhaps.” Alfor echoes Daphne’s words smiling warmly at her once again. “Come child. Sit here and listen. I will tell you the legends of Altea.” 

 

 

Daphne moves to sit in the grass close to the computer and settles in to listen.

 

“Legend says the birthplace of Altean magic, or as it is known to Alteans, Alchemy, was a land known as Oriande…”

 

King Alfor spends the next couple of vargas telling Daphne the legends of Altea. Some of them as sweet as children’s fairy tales while others were dark and cautionary. When he ran out of Altean tales he turned to those of the Galra and to other races known to the universe 10,000 years ago, most of whom were long dead by now. 

 

“So you see, many beings in many places and throughout time have been able to interact with quintessence. Some more than others but none more than Alteans, at least to my knowledge.”

 

“What about the Galra?” 

 

“I have never known the Galra to be able to interact with quintessence.” Then King Alfor’s voice adopted a hard edge. “The Galra harvest quintessence, using it to fuel their empire and conquer the known universe.” Alfor paused for a moment and became sad. “I once knew a time when the Galra where good, they did not rely on quintessence and the Emperor was a personal friend.” Alfor stopped speaking again and cocked his head ever so slightly to the side as if listening. Daphne waited no so patiently for him to continue, when he didn’t, she spoke. 

 

“King Alfor, what is it?” 

 

“It seems, perhaps, that I have monopolized your time for long enough. The paladins have just returned to the ship having retrieved the blue lion.”

 

“Retrieved the blue lion? What happened?”

 

Alfor chuckled a bit. “I believe your friends would be better equipped to answer that. Go now and we will talk further another time.” 

 

Daphne got up and began to head for the door when she paused and turned back to the hologram. “It was a pleasure meeting you and thank you for all you’ve taught me, I won't forget it. I don’t believe we will get another chance to talk though.” 

 

“That may well be the case but the lions will always know their history. Now run along. Your friends are waiting.”

 

Puzzled, Daphne made a quick bow and an equally quick exit. As the image of the last king faded from view and the sweeping Altean landscape returned once more to the dull gray walls, Daphne’s confusion over Alfor’s parting words fell to the background as her attention shifted to one of his earlier comments and a simple recurring question. What the hell did Lance do this time? 

 

-

 

The doors to the bridge opened with a swoosh and Daphne saw the faces of her assembled teammates. She didn’t miss a beat. “So what did Lance do this time?”

 

“WHAT!?” Came an indignant screech from the boy in question. Pidge burst into hysterical laughter. Even Keith smirked. 

 

“HOW COULD YOU POSSIBLY-- WHY WOULD-- HOW?”

 

“A little birdy told me.” Daphne smirked.

 

While everyone looked a little confused, Coran and Allura looked especially out of the loop. Guess they didn’t know what a ‘birdy’ was. 

 

“Alright, alright.” Shiro stepped in.” That’s enough of that.”

 

“Ok, but seriously, what happened?” Daphne asked. Despite knowing that Lance had lost the blue lion she didn’t know how.

 

As Shiro started filling her in on the details the rest of the group would occasionally join in with clarifications or comments on the situation. Hunk was especially adamant about knowing from the start that Rolo was bad news. Daphne waited until they had finished completely to speak. 

 

“Wow, that sounds like quite the day you all had.” Daphne turned to Hunk. Putting a hand on his shoulder she spoke to him alone. “Good job, Hunk. Your gut was telling you something was wrong and you listened to it, even when everybody else disregarded your feeling. It sounds like you took what steps you could to keep everybody safe while still helping those in need. I’m proud of you. Always trust your gut, Hunk. It will serve you well.”

 

Hunk looked down and seemed to both flourish and squirm under the praise. “Thanks Daphne.”

 

She smiled at him. “Of course.” Then she turned to Keith. “Nice job retrieving the blue lion. You always were the best at fancy flying.” Then she reaches over to ruffle his hair.

 

“Hey! Cut it out!” He bats her hand away for his hair. He reaches up to fix it and levels a glare at her. She smiles in return.

 

“Hey guys?” Hunk interrupts. “Can we go now? We need to get to the Balmera and save Shay.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry this took so long. I have no excuse. 
> 
> I hope you enjoy, I worked hard on it.
> 
> Also would anyone be interested in beta testing/reading my stuff before I post it? Let me know. Thanks!


	17. S1e7 Return to the Balmera

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The team is finally on their way to the Balmera to rescue Shay. No more detours or distractions.  
> What happens when they have a little time to kill on the way there? Who's changed the most in the last year? And who is the biggest insomniac of the bunch? Maybe they'll find out, maybe not.  
> And then of course there is a big fight, but you already knew that.

Allura had told everyone that it would take almost a full day to reach the Balmera so Daphne hit the training deck. Actually what Allura had said was that it would take almost a quintant. When she had received nothing but blank stares from Daphne and the paladins she amended that it would take closer to 18 vargas. 

 

The novelty of the time language barrier had already worn off for Daphne. She had turned to Pidge and asked if she could make an Altean watch. Pidge had seemed to perk up ever so slightly at the challenge and had left the room, promising that it would be done before they arrived at the Balmera. Not long after that the rest of the group had dispersed. Seeing as there was plenty of time left in the day-cycle, Daphne made for the training deck. 

 

When the large doors slid open, Daphne was surprised to find the room unoccupied. When Shiro and Keith had wandered off together earlier, she had assumed they would come here. Oh well, she hadn’t really come here to see them anyway, she had come here to train. Having been taught by Keith how to use multiple function of the training deck, Daphne wasted no time on selecting a warm-up program. 

 

“Start training level one.” As Daphne takes her stance and draws her blades, a hole in the ceiling opens and a training bot drops through. She waits for the flash of light that means its activated, then she charges. The next few minutes are a blur of metallic instruments. 

 

Knives force their users into close quarters with their opponents but Daphne’s opponent wields a longer range sword. It's everything she’s looking for. It's a fight where she is at every disadvantage she can think of: height, strength, weapons. As much as it is physical training she’s also training her brain to spin every disadvantage into an advantage or hidden weapon. One of the biggest ones she is used to relying on is her opponent underestimating her, however this time her opponent is a robot that will make no such mistake. This fight is really an exercise in creativity for Daphne and as such she drags it out for a few minutes longer than she needs to. 

 

Through the sound of clanking blades and her own heavy breathing, she almost missed the quiet sound of the doors opening. She doesn’t spare a glance towards the door, choosing instead to continue with what's in front of her. 

 

“You’re toying with it.” Keith stated rather matter-of-factly. He knew what she was capable of, he also knew what the bots were capable of as he spared with them often. 

 

Daphne elected not to answer, instead focusing her energies on finishing off the bot once and for all. Having decided to stop drawing things out, it only took a few moments to over-power her opponent and end the match. 

 

“Start training level two.” Daphne called. Her muscles were singing at the exertion, her body humming for more action. She wanted more. Sitting still might actually kill her right now. 

 

Keith watched, not making a sound. He had come here to train with the bots as well but there was something very interesting about watching Daphne fight. He didn’t get watch her all that often so he stayed quiet and let her continue. She moved entirely differently in a fight, she was graceful and powerful in her movements, not that she wasn’t graceful in everyday life but it was something else in training. He was watching her execute a particularly impressive flip maneuver clear over the 8ft training bot when the door behind him slid open again. The newest occupant of the training deck walked right up next to Keith and folded his arms.

 

“How’s she doing?” Keith knew Shiro wasn’t just asking for details of the fight, he was also asking if she was ok after her abbreviated stay in the cryo-pods less than two days ago. 

 

“When I walked in she was toying with it.” Keith shrugged before continuing. “I’d say she’s fine. She seems to be holding her own against level two so far. That’s as far as I’ve gotten in the training program.”

 

Shiro considers this for a second. “I haven’t spent much time with the training bots since Allura’s Paladin boot camp.” Then a memory makes itself known to Shiro. “Hey, did we ever figure out what level was ‘fit for an Altean child’?” Shiro asks, echoing Allura’s words after the paladins had failed to beat the gladiator training program. Keith simply shook his head in response. Whatever level it had been was much higher than anything he had been practicing with. 

 

As the two boys watched, Daphne continued to ignore them and focus on the fight. There was a big difference in difficulty between levels one and two. Daphne was no longer able to toy with the bot, she was fighting it for real now. It wasn’t life or death or anything like that, she could call for the training program to end at any point, she just didn’t want to. She could feel herself running out of steam. Still meeting the bot blow for blow, Daphne switched to defense in order to catch her breath and figure out a plan. The change did not go unnoticed by her audience.

 

“She’s gone on the defensive.” Shiro sounded concerned.

 

“Yeah, level two is hard. She also wasted a lot of energy on level one.” Keith was unconcerned, a simple command from Daphne could end the program if she was overwhelmed. 

 

Shiro was unconvinced, he opened his mouth to call it when Daphne’s voice range clear and loud across the room.

 

“Don’t you dare!” 

 

Shiro promptly shut his mouth, the expression on his face causing Keith to burst out laughing. 

 

Daphne moved in for the kill on the bot. She knew that even on the defensive she was burning through her energy. This fight was going to have to end one way or another and Daphne was determined to come out on top. 

 

Shiro and Keith watched as she turned the tables on her opponent. By catching the blow from its sword with the wrong blade, she was then able to use her free hand to sever its wrist joint. Now weaponless, the playing field was more than tipped in Daphne’s favor. Quickly jamming her knives into its shoulder joints, she pulled another one from a sheath on her leg and jammed it into its neck. The fight was effectively over as soon as she had immobilized it’s arms but Daphne wanted to finish the job. Ducking under one of it’s twitching arms she landed hard kicks to the backs of its knee joints causing them to buckle thus bringing the giant down to her level. Approaching from behind, Daphne reached around for the knife in its neck. Having secured a good grip, she jerked it back, hard, severing the bot’s head and ending the training sequence. 

 

Having finished the job, Daphne turned to her spectators. Shiro was staring at her in shock. Keith looked mildly impressed. He was the first to speak.

 

“That was ruthless.” 

 

Daphne wiped the sweat off her face and shrugged. “Whatever it takes.” She bend down to collect her knives from the broken bot and sheath them once more. “You ok Shiro? You look like you just watched me kick a puppy.”

 

The shocked expression hadn’t left Shiro’s face until Daphne spoke. He rearranged his face into a more neutral expression. The truth was that he was surprised by her ruthlessness. He had left behind a very different 17 year old girl before the Kerberos mission than the nearly 19 year old woman standing in front of him. The pieces started coming together, stealing classified information from Iverson, running away from and calling the Garrison the enemy, going after Sendak alone, and the list went on. This war had changed her before it had ever reached her. It had been molding and shaping her as long as it had been doing the same to him. 

 

After a moment that lasted entirely too long Shiro spoke. “I’m fine. I was just surprised is all. You never used to fight like that back at the Garrison.” 

 

Daphne studied Shiro’s expression as she approached the boys on the fringes of the room. “I was never fighting to kill at the Garrison. I wasn’t training to kill then either. We’ve been apart for some time now, things have changed.”

 

Shiro didn’t miss the way she carefully avoided saying that he had been away, that he had been a prisoner of the Galra. “That’s true.” Though the thought made Shiro incredibly sad. He would have preferred that everything stay exactly the same. 

 

After a few moments too many of pregnant silence Keith was done with it. 

 

“Who want to spar?” He had come here to train after all and had wasted enough time standing around already. Throwing his jacket to the side he moved towards the center of the room bayard at the ready.

 

“You’d better take this one Shiro. I’m going to get a drink and catch my breath.”

 

Shiro didn’t say anything in response, only nodded and moved to the middle of the room with Keith.

 

“Ready?” Keith asked, forming a sword in his hand. 

 

“Ready.” Shiro responds, a bit of the spark back behind his eyes. Activating his arm, he falls into a familiar stance. 

 

Keith charges.

 

-

 

Several rousing rounds later had seen Shiro call an end to training for the night as they all needed to be in fighting condition tomorrow. While the boys had hit the communal showers, Daphne had returned to her room and her private shower. As soon as she stepped out she could feel the tell-tale signs of having energy left to spend. Sleep wouldn’t be coming to her anytime soon. 

 

Once dressed, Daphne ventured out into the hall and considered her options. She could return to the training deck and push herself to exhaustion, but that would mean getting sweaty again. She could go find Shiro, but he was probably asleep already. What about the armory? That could be fun and helpful. Daphne hadn’t forgot going head to head with the sentries, knives to guns. Maybe she could find herself a nice little blaster. 

 

-

 

Shiro was also struggling to settle down for the night. After having showered off and getting into clothes once more he was at a loss on how to proceed. Bed, which was the logical choice, was not appealing in the slightest at the moment. After debating with himself for a moment, he decides to do a security sweep of the castle in the hope that it will settle him to see everything is alright for the night. 

 

-

 

Daphne frowned and set her hands on her hips. Allura hadn’t been kidding the other day when she said she had no weapons to give Daphne. There was nothing here, some armory this turned out to be. 

 

She thought for a moment, staring at the now empty spaces where the paladin armor had once been. The day all eight occupants of the Castle of Lions had been in the room seemed so far away. She knew it had been less than a week ago but the exact number of days eluded her. It was kinda hard to keep track in a nearly windowless castle when you spend indeterminate amounts of time unconscious and didn’t have even a semblance of a sleep pattern. She was kinda a mess. 

 

Coming back to the present she swept her gaze around the room once more. Still nothing. The table immediately behind her had once held four of the five paladins bayards but it was also empty now. She made her way around it, frustrated that she had been thwarted in her plans to increase her personal arsenal. 

 

Just as she was leaving, unsure of what to do with herself next, a thought occurred to her. This room wasn’t the only part of the armory. The room that Coran had taken Keith and her too on their first day here, Allura had also called that the armory! And if Daphne remembered correctly, that room should be right next door. That room had a generator in it, that's where she had gotten her spacesuit from. 

 

Daphne stepped out into the hall. If the castle could generate a spacesuit, surely it can generate weapons too. Excitedly, Daphne looked just to the left of the door she had just emerged from. Sure enough, there was another door just where she remembered it being. 

 

As she approached the door slid open for her just as any other door had. Taking a step in, it was just as she remembered it, as fuzzy as that memory was from her lack of sleep at the time. Settling in at the computer screen she started sorting through the preset catalog. 

 

-

 

He had checked almost every part of the ship he was familiar with. The training deck and it’s control room were empty, the infirmary was quiet, even the lab was unoccupied. Shiro had half expected to find Pidge hard at work on something in there but even she must have gone to her room. Each room her checked was found in a similar state. The kitchen, lounge, and dining hall were all devoid of people. The only person he had come across was Coran on the bridge. Still hard at work trying to repair the castle, Shiro had reminded him to go to bed at some point but had not lingered for a conversation.

 

Content that the castle was quiet and most of its occupants were at least in their rooms if not actually asleep, Shiro turned back towards his own room. He still wasn’t tired but he was all out of excuses to avoid his room. That was until he saw a light under the door to a room he hadn’t been in yet. Curious, and with nothing better to do he stepped forward, allowing the door to open for him. 

 

Shiro would like to have said that he was surprised when the first thing he saw was a head full of red hair, but sadly that was not the case.

 

At the sound of the door opening, said red-head turned and greeted him with a smile.

 

“Hi Shiro. Couldn’t sleep either?”

 

He shook his head. “You don’t seem all that surprised to see me.” He noted. Looking at her, he noticed that she was dressed for bed. Much like the last time he had seen her in the middle of the night, she was wearing the same light green nightgown and matching robe. It looked really good on her.

 

“Not really. Out of all the people on the ship I’m starting to realize that we are the two biggest insomniacs.” She frowned for a second, thinking. “Although now that I think about it, working with Pidge in the Garrison I’ve realized that she might be serious competition for the title of insomniac supreme.” Daphne smiled and when Shiro chuckled at her little joke she beamed. 

 

“What are doing here?” Shiro asked, stepping up to look over her shoulder at the computer.

 

Daphne turned back around to face the screen. “I’m looking through the castle generator’s preset list of weapons. I’ve realized that as much as I like to fight with my knives, they are a little low-tech for an intergalactic war.”

 

Shiro looked over the options she had pulled up in front of her. “What were you thinking of getting?’

 

“A blaster but I’m not entirely sure which one. Something small but powerful.” With that comment she selected a few of the smaller blaster models and removed the others from the screen. “I’ve been comparing the different options available and I think I’ve narrowed it down to these five options. What do you think?”

 

Daphne moved over so Shiro could get right in front of the computer. He took his time going through the options, making sure to take into account size, power, and what he knew about Daphne’s fighting style. He wanted to pick something for her that was compact enough to comfortably sit on her person without inhibiting her wide range of motion. He also wanted it to actually work against the sentries. 

 

After a few minutes of silence, Shiro spoke. “Personally I think this model would be best for you. It’s got the power you need and while it’s not the smallest one available, you could easily carry two of them either on your lower back or one of each hip. That wouldn’t restrict your movement very much and you still have plenty of places to carry your knives.”

 

Daphne looks at the screen at the option Shiro had picked out for her. “It’s perfect. Thank you, Shiro.” She threw her arms around him, startling him a bit. Reaching up to kiss him on the cheek, she giggled at his reaction to her sudden affection. 

 

It only took half a second but once Shiro was over his surprise he smiled warmly at her. “I’m glad I could help. Are you going to make them now?”

 

Daphne looked over at the screen again. After pressing a few buttons she frowned. “I don’t think it's a good idea right now. The power levels on the castle are pretty low and I think the generator is being a bit glitchy. It isn’t much, I hardly noticed, but the screen has flickered a couple of times while I was using it. Did you see it while you were using it?” 

 

Shiro hadn’t and said as much. “But if you don’t want to make them now, that’s fine. We can always come back to it.” Just as Shiro finished speaking Daphne yawned. “Tired?”

 

“Yeah, a little bit. Finally.” Daphne yawns again. This time Shiro yawns as well. “Bed time for both of us?”

 

“I think so. Let’s go, we want to be well rested for tomorrow.” 

 

-

 

They walk in silence, punctuated by the occasional yawn from either party, until they reach Daphne’s room. 

 

Daphne turns to Shiro and before he can say anything she stretches up on her tiptoes to give him a proper kiss. Clearly not expecting it, Shiro took a second to respond and lean into the kiss. Bringing his human harm up he placed his hand on her waist. The galra arm, he hovered over the small of her back still a little wary of touching her with it.

 

While Daphne did notice the hesitation, she filed that information away for future Daphne to deal with. Right now she just wanted to enjoy the moment. But before she could have her fill of kissing Shiro, if that was even possible, he pulled away. In the dim light of the hall she could just barely make out the slight dusting of color across his face. 

 

Shiro may have been the first to pull away but Daphne was the first to speak.

 

“That was nice.” She smiled up at him. “I suppose I should say goodnight now.”

 

Shiro swallowed before responding. “Goodnight Daphne. I’ll see you in the morning.” As he turned to go Daphne got an idea.

 

Without thinking she called out after him. “Shiro?” He turned back to her, waiting. “Do you- um, do you want to stay here tonight?” But before he could respond she kept going, nervous. “I mean we both seem to sleep better when we are together. I guess I can't speak for you last night as you spent it in a chair by my bed-” Wow had that really been just last night? “-but I know I slept better knowing you were there. No nightmares.” By the time she had finished speaking her voice had gotten rather small and quiet, afraid that he was going to reject her, she folded into herself a bit and looked away.

 

Shiro placed a hand on her shoulder before speaking. “Thank you for the offer but I think I should sleep in my own bed tonight.” Daphne deflated a bit further. “It’s not that I don’t want to but, as you said, I spent last night in a chair. Also I think we need to talk more and figure out what we are, what this is, before we push for anything further. We need to decide on personal and professional boundaries so no one gets hurt. It’s a little late tonight to have those conversations so I think we need to sleep separately tonight. Ok?” Despite the firm position Shiro was taking on the matter he did want to make sure she was okay with the temporary boundaries he was setting. When Daphne nodded he leaned forward and kissed her forehead. “Goodnight Daphne.” Then he turned around and walked down the hall as Daphne watched him go.

 

-

 

The next morning came all too quickly as does the subsequent afternoon and their imminent arrival at the Balmera. In all that time Daphne hadn’t had a moment with Shiro alone. She was a bit disappointed but maybe now wasn’t the time anyway considering the looming battle. Everyone needed to be focused. They needed a plan. And to that end everyone had gathered on the bridge.

 

“We'll be arriving at the Balmera soon.” Allura’s voice snapped Daphne back to the present. “Liberating these Balmerans from Zarkon's grasp will not be easy.”

 

Everyone but Coran was standing in a semicircle around where Shiro’s command station usual sat, looking out at the view as they approached the Balmera. 

 

“So, what's the plan?” Lance asks. “We go in there and just pow, pow, pow!” he punctuates every ‘pow’ with wild flailing of his arms and finger guns. “And free the prisoners?” 

 

“What was that noise?” Keith asks, looking for all the world like he’d just lost years off his life listening to Lance’s bad sound effects. 

 

“Laser guns.” Is the only answer he gets.

 

“No, Lance.” Hunk jumps in. “I think you mean” And then proceeds to make a series of indescribably sounds while moving his arms back and forth. He finished by bringing both arms up around his head and lowering them in front of him for one final explosion impression. 

 

Lance does not agree. “That sounds like fireworks.”

 

“Technically-” Pidge adds. Looks like they are going down the line. “They're more like ba-choo, ba-choo, ba-choo!” She holds her hands together to form one single finger gun which she used to punctuate the noises. 

 

“Okay, enough with the bad sound effects.” Shiro says putting an end to the weirdness. For one blissful moment Daphne thinks it’s over, but then he continues. “Besides, it's more like blam, blam, blam!” By the end of the display Shiro is down on one knee and Daphne’s face is in her palm. Poor Allura looks so bewildered. 

 

“What?” Keith is the first of many to react to Shiro’s interpretation of laser fire.

Pidge is scratching her head “You're crazy.”

 

“No way.” Says Lance who started it all. 

 

“Wrong.” Comes Hunk’s verdict. 

 

At this point Allura seems to have had enough. “Paladins, focus.” That seems to be enough to at least get Hunk back on track. 

 

“Besides, we can't just shoot at the Galra. This Balmera, it's, like, alive.” Coran puts a bio scan view of the Balmera up on the screen. “And from what we've seen, it doesn't look very good.”

 

From his place at the helm, Coran joins in with Hunk. “Yes, it's an atrocity what the Galra have been doing to this grand beast.” He pulls up a visual of one of the Galran mine shafts. “Stealing its crystals, it's very life force, without ever performing the energy rejuvenation ceremonies to heal it.” A diagram of the ceremonies pops up as well. 

 

“After seeing Shay's people enslaved, it made me realize how bad Zarkon really is.” Hunk continues. “And we're the only ones who can stop him.” 

 

“Okay.” Shiro says, thinking out loud. “So we can't go into the tunnels guns blazing.” He turns to the majority of the group. “Plan B. We figure out how to draw the Galra up to the surface and battle them out there.”

 

‘Wait.” Hunk says. “I know. If we attack all of this big mining stuff on the surface, the Galra troops will have to come out to defend it. Then we beat them up, head down to the tunnels, Voltron saves the day.” 

 

It’s a good idea. A rough one that needs some fine tuning but a good place to start. Daphne smiles at Hunk, making sure he knows it's in praise. She’s figured out already that a little bit goes a long way with Hunk but that he still does need that little bit now and again to feel appreciated. 

 

“But how will we know how many are left in the tunnels? “ Keith raises a good question. 

 

“We can track the Galra and the Balmerans using Biothermal Life Indicator Point Technology.” Allura summons a small hologram to show the paladins. 

 

“Oh, BLIP tech!” Pidge adjusts her glasses to look at it, eyes gleaming. When Allura just looks at her in confusion she adds, “It's an acronym.”

 

Allura continues. As she talks the hologram moves to join a larger projected map of the inside of the Balmera. “One of you will need to fly around the Balmera and drop sensors into the shafts on each side. Then we'll be able to see where the Galra and the Balmerans are. There are already sensors built into your suits.”

 

“I can do it.” Pidge volunteers. “I just modified the Green Lion with the invisible maze's cloaking ability. I should be able to fly around unnoticed.”

 

Daphne is very impressed. Pidge truly is a genius. 

 

“That's their main power generator.” Coran says as he pulls a magnified display from the view of the Balmera looming ever closer. “If you take that down, it will severely weaken their defenses.”

 

“We'll stay in cloud cover and give tactical support.” Allura offers. “With the Castle's defenses weakened from Sendak's crystal, we won't be of much help to you.” 

 

Daphne looks at the castle diagnostic Allura pulls up for a moment. It isn’t great, but it should be enough, assuming nothing goes wrong. 

 

“I'll take out the power generator.” Shiro starts going out the orders. “Keith, Lance, Hunk, you take out these big mining rigs around the area.” 

 

“Yeah!” Hunk is pumped. “Okay, let's do this! Let's go kick some alien butt!” 

 

“Wait.” Daphne hates to rain on his parade but something just isn’t right. She closes her eyes trying to focus.

 

“Daphne?” Shiro asks. “What is it? What can you feel?” She doesn’t answer right away.

 

“What’s going on?” Hunk whispers to Pidge who just shrugs. 

 

“What is she doing?” Lance asks a little louder to no one in particular. 

 

Kieth shushes him. “She’s concentrating. She’s trying to sense the future.”

 

Lance just blinks at Keith for a beat. “WHAT!” He says entirely too loudly shattering her concentration. 

 

“Really, Lance?” Daphne rounds on him. “What part of ‘shh, she's concentrating’ did you not understand?”

 

“Daphne.” Shiro’s tone is a little sharp, chastising her for being rude to Lance. But he doesn’t linger on that moment. “What is it?” 

 

“I don’t know exactly.” She closes her eyes again, screwing her face up in effort. “I’m definitely being drawn to the Balmera, there is something there I need. It’s like when I was being drawn to Iverson’s office both times Pidge broke in-”

 

“You were there?” Pidge interrupts. But Daphne doesn't engage with her.

 

“But I’m also getting something else. I’m not really sure how to describe it.” She opens her eyes again.

 

“Try.” This time it is Keith who encourages her.

 

“Ok so you know that feeling you get in the pit of your stomach when your getting chewed out by Iverson and he asks you a question that you just know there is no right answer to? No matter what you say, you’re dead meat. It kinda feels like that.” 

 

She gets a lot of different looks from the occupants of the bridge. “I don’t know. I can’t explain and better than that.” She turns to look out at the view and sighs. “I wish I could go down there, maybe it would make sense then.”

 

Unsure of what to do with this new information, Shiro speaks up. “You can come down to the Balmera as soon as we’ve liberated it from Zarkon’s forces. Until then, we could really use you on technical support up here.” 

 

“Ok, I’ll let you know if I get anything else.” 

 

Shiro nods. 

 

“Wait.” Pidge interjects. “I don’t really know what your going on about but-” She pulls something out of her pocket. “This might be able to help you.” She holds it up. It looks like a watch but slightly wrong with a square face and thick band around it. 

 

“Is that the watch I asked for?” Daphne asks her, suddenly excited. Not sure how it could help with this particular problem, but excited nonetheless. 

 

“Yup.” Pidge beams. “Plus a few additions I thought of. I connected the watch to the castles interface. You can summon screens off of it to use almost any castle function from anywhere in the castle and for a good range outside of it. I’m not sure what that range is exactly but so long as you can see the castle reasonably well, I think it should work. And since it would be hard to wear and use with one of the shield gauntlets, I added the shield function to it as well.”

 

“Wow, that's amazing. Thank you so much Pidge.” Daphne takes the offered watch from Pidge’s outstretched hands. She removes the shield gauntlet she was already wearing over her space suit and replaces it with the watch. Tapping it to life she is suddenly faced with multiple projected screens she can interact with. Looking down at her wrist she notices that the watch face is displaying the time in a digital form in the center of an analogue face. “This is amazing. Thank you so much Pidge!”

 

“You’re welcome.”

“Alright everyone.” Shiro calls them back to focus. “Let’s get moving.”

 

-

 

As the castle begins its descent into the Balmera’s atmosphere the paladins load up into their lions and prepare for launch. The bridge crew, consisting of Coran, Allura and Daphne, are monitoring the descent and the situation below. Now that Daphne is not restricted to one command station or another she is free to stand by Allura’s side, just off the platform. She can hear the paladins talking but she isn’t listening in at the moment. 

 

As the Paladins launch she turns the communications monitor on so she can hear everything they say, even if they aren’t attempting to reach a particular person. Unless they specifically turn the entire communication system off in their suit, she should be able to hear them.

 

As soon as the Lions duck below the clouds, the Galran defense systems kick in. 

 

“ **This is it.** ” Shiro voice comes in loud and clear. “ **Get your heads in the game. Remember, the Balmera is a living creature. Make sure you pinpoint only the Galra installations and not its surface.** ”

 

“ **Initiating cloak** .” Daphne watches the image on the main screen as visual contact is lost with the green lion. She can still track it but she can no longer see it. Shortly after the green lion splits off, the first BLIP tech sensor goes online. 

 

The paladins are making quick work of the initial galra defenses but Daphne is more focused on the sensors drops. Shortly after Shiro finishes off the power generator with his new jaw blade, the last sensor goes online. 

“ **All sensors delivered** .” Comes the report from Pidge as a large, three dimensional map of the Balmera forms in the center of the Bridge. 

 

-

 

The battle seems to be going well so far, a few minor hiccups with the introduction of the red lion’s new fire power and the blue lion’s new ice rays, but overall it's going a little too well. The feeling from before isn’t going away. In fact it seems to be growing but Daphne still can’t figure it out. 

 

“ **Great job, team!** ” Shiro’s voice breaks her concentration once again. 

 

“ **Where are all the troops?** ” Keith’s voice comes over the coms. “ **They're not coming to the surface.** ” Daphne starts looking around the map. When she spots a large group of fighters she points it out to Allura.

 

“ **Yeah, I remember seeing a lot of Galra guys down in the mines** .” Hunk adds.

 

“We've located a hangar full of Galra fighters just below the surface.” Allura tells the paladins while Daphne sends the information to their lions. “Someone has to take those out before they can launch.”

 

“ **They're luring us down** .” Shiro admits. “ **But we have no choice** .” Something about what Shiro just said strikes Daphne as important. “ **Keith, Lance, you guys hit the hangar. Hunk, head to the prison to rescue Shay and the other Balmerans. Pidge and I will track down the Galra soldiers.** ”

 

With a flurry or responses in the affirmative, the lions split off to follow Shiro’s orders. 

 

-

 

Daphne can hear the paladins on their respective missions talking to one another, she can hear the reports coming in and people asking for directions but she isn’t listening. She’s concentrating. Normally in the middle of a battle she wouldn’t be afforded that luxury but since there were three people on the bridge monitoring the goings on, she felt a bit superfluous. Going back and forth between what she had said earlier about Iverson and Shiro’s comment about being lured into the Balmera, it was on the tip of her tongue. Like so right there that she just knew she was going to hate herself as soon as she figured it out. Something Hunk was saying to himself pushed its way into her awareness. 

 

“ **That was way too easy. I definitely don't have a good feeling about this.** ”

 

“Where is Hunk?” Daphne asked, unable to see his dot clearly on the map.

 

“He’s over here.” Allura pointed. “He just reached the cells.” 

 

Daphne listened, she could hear Hunk talking with the Balmerans. But before she could ask Hunk about who he found, Allura spoke up.

 

“Paladins, are you there? The Galra troops are moving down the tunnels. It looks like they're going down toward the center.”

 

“ **They must be headed to the core.** ” Hunk responded immediately. “ **That's where they're holding Shay.** ”

 

And that’s when it hit her. She was really going to kick herself later for not having figured it out sooner. “Wait!”

 

“ **What is it Daphne?** ” Shiro asked

 

“It’s a trap.” Daphne was frantically looking around at troop movements and putting the pieces together in her head. Not everything added up quite right yet but it was definitely a trap. “They want you to go to the core. I haven’t quite figured out all of how the trap works there are pieces not in place yet, but I know it’s a trap.” 

 

Shiro was quiet for a moment. When he spoke again he sounded pressed and a little desperate. “ **They're drawing us into an ambush, but we don't have a choice if we want to save Shay. We have to follow. Lance, Keith, get to the core. I think we're going to need everyone together to get through this firefight.** ”

 

“ **Copy that** .” Lance called. “ **We're on our way** .”

 

“No, that isn’t right.” Daphne said mostly under her breath and to herself. 

 

The skirmishes continue as the paladins make their way to the core but Daphne’s focus has now gone singular on how the trap will come together. She hears Hunk call for Shay and knows he’s found her. She can see him in the core and the others are closing but there is still a piece missing to this trap. The Galra weren't waiting for the paladins down there, they were isolating them from the firefight up here!

 

“Oh no.”

 

“Daphne, what is it?” Allura asks as both her and Coran turn to look at the girl. She doesn’t waste time responding to them. 

 

“Particle barrier up!” Daphne calls while pulling up shield and weapons statues to the forefront of her screens. And not a moment too soon. A squadron of Galra fighters drops into range and start firing. Just then the captured paladins make their situation known. 

 

“ **Allura, can you please come get us?** ” Lance’s voice comes through the com. 

 

“We're quite occupied at the moment.” She responds. “We're completely surrounded by Galra ships and we're taking heavy fire!”

 

The castle is low on power, they don’t have much in the way of offensive capabilities if they want to keep the shields operational. Daphne starts shutting down power to non-essential systems to boost what they have but it isn’t enough. An alarm starts to sound.

 

“Princess, our particle barrier won't last much longer!”

 

“Paladins, you need to get out of there as soon as you can!” Allura calls but Daphne can see the trap now for what it is and she can’t see a good way out. 

 

“ **Allura, we'll get there as soon as we can.** ” Shiro reassures. 

But as soon as they can may not be soon enough. Coran notices a few of the fighters breaking away from the castle.

 

“They're heading down into the tunnels! They're going to steal the lions!”

 

“Paladins.” Allura calls to them again. “The lions are in danger! You must get back to them immediately!” and just when it doesn’t seem like it can get any worse, another alarm goes off. All these damn alarms sound exactly the same.

 

“Princess” Coran starts, looking rather scared. “Something's locked onto us.”

 

Just as Coran finished speaking a large Galran battle cruiser drops out of hyper drive right in front of them. There is near silence on the bridge as the three occupants take in the gravity of their position. With the arrival of the battle cruiser the trap is complete, there is no more warning. Daphne realizes that they have been completely taken in. 

 

Allura is the first to snap out of it. “Paladins, do you copy? There's a battle cruiser locked onto us. If it fires with its ion cannon, I don't know if we can survive.”

 

“ **We're trying, Allura** .” Lance responds. “ **Shay's pressing her hand against a wall, which apparently sends vibrations to the other rock people who vibrate back or something? Hand talking? I guess the answer to your question is, Yes, we copy** .”

 

Daphne stopped listening when Lance started rambling. There wasn’t much she could do but that isn't stopping her from trying. 

 

“Diverting power from all non-essential systems.” Quickly she shuts down lights, temperature control, and life support to all areas of the castle that aren’t the bridge. “Power is being diverted.” 

 

“ **Allura, stand by** .” Shiro says. “ **We're on our way up.** ” Daphne doesn’t know how they managed to get out, she’ll have to ask them another time because right now it doesn’t matter. Right now they need to get back to their lions before the fighters can take off with them. It’s going to be a couple of close calls. 

 

“Paladins, hurry! They're taking off with the lions!” 

 

Daphne is too focused on maintaining shield power so she doesn’t get to know the results of the race to the lions until Shiro speaks.

 

“ **Guys, did everyone make it to the lions in time?** ”

 

“ **Come on, Shiro.** ” Lance speaks up. “ **Who do you think you're dealing with, a bunch of amateurs?** ” 

 

Daphne does, however, have the good fortune to glance up just in time to see Lance crash the blue lion into an easily avoidable galra installation. If  Daphne wasn’t so worried about being blown out of the sky, she would have laughed. 

 

“ **Do you really want me to answer that?** ”

“ **No** .”

 

“ **Let's go!** ” Shiro calls. 

 

Daphne is relieved to have the paladins back in the fight. Unlike the castle, the lions are not lacking in power and make quick work of the fighters. However a few words from Coran turn that short lived relief back into dread. 

 

“It's charging its ion cannon!”

 

“Divert all shields to the bow.” Allura orders and Coran makes it so just in time for the ion cannon to fire on the ship. It’s not a short blast but a sustained beam. They can’t hold out. “Paladins, I need you immediately! Five more ticks and we're finished!”

 

“ **Okay, team, let's form Voltron!** ”

 

Daphne can’t see the moment it happens because of all the light from the ion charge hitting the shield. She doesn’t see them form Voltron or emerge from the clouds right under the battle cruiser. She also doesn’t see Voltron force the ship off its course until after the beam has been redirected. What she does see is Voltron under an off-kilter ship and a perfect opportunity to strike. And she’s not the only one. 

 

“Right now is our chance, Princess!”

“Full power to the blasters!” The shield goes down. “Locked onto target.” All of Allura’s systems switch to targeting.

 

“Guys!” Daphne calls. “Get clear of the shot.”

 

 “Fire!”

 

Voltron clears only moments before the beam strikes. And strike it does. It blasts a hole right through to the other side of the cruiser. The resulting explosion takes out not only the entire cruiser but all the nearby fighters as well. The explosion lights up the sky, blinding the entire view field from the bridge for a moment before revealing a fiery sky. 

 

“ **Mission accomplished** .” Keith says as Voltron and the castle of lions head for the surface of the Balmera. 

 

“And just in the tick of time.” The princess responds. “The Castle's defenses are battered and will need to fully recharge.”

 

But the peace that comes at the end of a fight is barely born, it hardly had the chance to exist when its killed by the sound of yet another alarm. 

 

“There's an unknown object incoming!” Coran cries. “It's about to crash into the Balmera!”

 

And sure enough, on the screen, an eerily familiar object makes its way towards the ground. Daphne’s seen this view before, back on Arus. As soon as the objects crashes down and Daphne can get a good clean look at it, she knows for sure what it is and she is scared. 

 

“ **What the heck is that?** ” Lance asks

 

Daphne doesn’t answer. She doesn’t have to because she’s not the only one who's seen this thing before. 

 

“ **Trouble.** ” Comes Shiro’s one-word reply. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry People. School is killer, I'm already behind!!! I've also already been evacuated for a hurricane. Yay! (That's the only reason I've been able to get this done some time this century) I'm like so dead, and in a show. 
> 
> I guess what I'm saying is that you really shouldn't expect much from me or this story anytime soon. I PROMISE that I will be back, I just don't know when. Probably not before Halloween. 
> 
> And as always PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE say something if you like it. I'm starved for a little feedback. I've been begging my real life friends for feedback and that's starting to get weird.
> 
> ONE MORE THING!!!  
> Please comment whether you prefer Hunk/Shay OR Hunk/Pidge. I don't really have any strong feelings at this point about that particular direction I honestly might not doing any ship for that but I haven't decided so please let me know what you want and I will take it into consideration.


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